Hieronymus Bosch c. 1450-1516 [antikvár]

The strange world of Hieronymus Bosch ist best studied in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Here, in one of the upper galleries, are gathered no less than three major altarpieces and several smaller pictures by Bosch and his workshop. They present a dramatic contrast to the other Nether- landish paintings hanging in the room. The coolly observed and precisely rendered details of Robert Campin's »Betrothal of the Virgin« and the dignified restraint of Roger van der Weyden's »Descent from the Cross« have nothing in common with the devil infested landscapes of Bosch's »Haywain« or his »Garden of Earthly Delights«. The art of the older masters is firmly rooted in the prosaic, substantial world of everyday expe- rience, but Bosch confronts us with a world of dreams, nightmares in which forms seem to flicker and change before our eyes. Bosch's pictures have always fascinated viewers, but in earlier centuries it was widely assumed that his diabolic scenes were intended merely to amuse or titillate, rather like the »grotteschi« of Italian Renaissance ornament. Philip II, it is true, collected his works more for edification than for entertainment, but the Spanish were in the minority. As the Spaniard Felipe de Guevara* complained in the earliest account of Bosch's art, written about 1560, most people regarded him merely as »the inventor of monsters and chimeras«. About a half-century later, the Dutch art historian Carel van Mander* described Bosch's paintings chiefly as »wondrous and strange fantasies often less pleasant than gruesome to look at«. In our own century, however, scholars have come to realize that Bosch's art possesses a more profound significance, and there have been many attempts to explain its origins and meaning. Some writers have seen him as a sort of fifteenth-century Surrealist who dredged up his disturbing forms from the subconscious mind; his name is frequently linked with that of Salvador Dali. For others, Bosch's art reflects esoteric practices of the Middle Ages, such as alchemy, astrology or witchcraft. Perhaps most provocative, however, are the attempts to connect Bosch with the various religious heresies which existed during the Middle Ages. An example can be found in the thesis proposed by Wilhelm Fraenger*. Because of their popularity, Fraenger's theories deserve consideration; they also vividly illustrate the problems encountered in interpreting Bosch. According to Fraenger, Bosch was a member of the Brethren of the Free Spirit, a heretical group which flourished throughout Europe for several hundred years after their first appearance in the thirteenth century. Little is known about this sect, but it is supposed that they practised sexual promiscuity as part of their religious rites, through which they attempted