Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings

by Jos Koldeweij, Paul Vandenbroeck, A.M. Koldeweij

"The paintings of Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516) capture the imagination like those of no other artist in history. His fantastical scenes of grotesque creatures, devils, and monsters have prompted a wide range of interpretation, keeping his art endlessly fascinating over the centuries. Art lovers and historians have speculated about the artist himself, too, in particular about his religous - and perhaps occult - beliefs." "This volume, published to coincide with a major exhibition in Bosch's native Netherlands, examines his art in the context of his times. Reproducing every Bosch painting and drawing in superb full color, and including Bosch's triptychs (many shown both open and closed), this book finally penetrates the mystery that has always surrounded the artist. Jos Koldeweij sketches a lively picture of urban culture in the late-medieval city of 's-Hertogenbosch, where the artist lived his entire life. Paul Vandenbroeck explores Bosch's social attitudes; the painter offered an unprecedented critique of society - money and property, sin and pleasure - from the perspective of the wealthy upper-middle class to which he himself belonged, and in so doing drew on the same themes and imagery found in the popular literature of the period. Bernard Vermet draws on the latest research to offer a new chronology for Bosch's work. Together, these scholars and Bosch's brilliant art itself demonstrate that Bosch was not only a highly inventive and technically brilliant painter, but that his beliefs and imagery were in keeping with many of the prevailing attitudes of his day." Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings is essential for anyone interested in the most fully rounded picture ever offered of the life and work of one of the world's most enigmatic artists.

Genres: Art, History, Nonfiction, Biography, Art History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2001

Reviews

[kat]

Loved the illustrations. The text that appeared next to them just consisted of general essays on Hieronymus Bosch. It would have been nice if each illustration had been accompanied by some kind of explanation or scholarly observation.

[Christina Marta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was rather disappointed. It’s a large book, so I was expecting a lot of pictures. They exist, but they are small, and if there’s a close-up of an element, it’s on a far distant page. You’ll end up flipping back and forth as you are directed from the page you’re reading to ones 39 behind or 20 in front. Even page numbers are in the inner creases, not the bottom or top corners, so very hard to find if there are paintings in the way.

Four essays give us history of Bosch and the paintings, but did we really need a monograph of dendrochronology to date the panels? I would rather see close-ups of “the Garden of Earthly Delights.” There was one. Of a fountain. We don’t get close ups of the Hay Wain, even though that’s an important work. I’ll just take the author’s word for it that those plates of folly have a fool sitting on eggs.


There are other, better art books. Go get one of those.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love this artist. I could look at his paintings and drawings all day long.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get lost in art.

[D.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an Abrams reprint of a book published for a major showing of Bosch. It includes three major segments, an introduction and a postscript, by three different authours: Jos Koldeweij, a specialist in Dutch Middle Ages art; Paul Vandenbroeck, a museum curator and Bosch specialist; and Bernard Vermet, former curator at a museum in Bosch's birthplace and co-curator of the exhibit.
The first essay (from Koldeweij) attempts to give the art a context geographically & temporally, while the second (from Vermet) tries to pinpoint what it means to be Bosch artwork. Both of these are interesting, but rather dry and occasionally veer off into peripheral subjects. They were a bit difficult for me to get through.
The third section is devoted to the art itself, trying to explain some of the symbolism, to pinpoint just what little of the already slim collection can actually be attributed to Bosch and to give at least an idea of why this extraordinary imagery is what it is. This essay was the most rewarding for me, as Bosch's nightmarish visions are nearly incomprehensible without some guide. With Vandenbroeck's guidance, the outrageous fantasy that seems to be at play here finds at least some grounding in the reality of the time and the artist.
I've had this book about 10 years, but have only now gotten around to reading it. The strongest point for it is that it is a complete visual catalogue of Bosch's work, or what we think is his, including many drawn pages. The greatest downside is that, in being comprehensive (and then some: a great deal of space is given to contemporaries and copiers) we are not given much detail of Bosch's complicated images and the full pictures of them are quite small. The reproduction of the pictures is, however, absolutely excellent.
As a complete collection, this book is quite good. As a chance to explore the visual intricacies of the nightmarish art world of Bosch, though, it comes up short.

[Margriet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three writers with each a different viewpoint on Bosch. The first two chapters were not very well written, but the last one, by Vandenbroeck, is so much better. He dives deeper into the meaning of the artworks, its contexts and discusses the society in which Bosch lived which is very interesting to read.

[Ayn · Rating 5 out of 5]

a major figure in the Reformation. Dark and visually overloading.

[Kafkasfriend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outside of time if ever an artist was clearly showing some of the more intricate tortures of the Inquisition amongst other esoteric things