Hieronymus Bosch: Difference between revisions

'''Hieronymus Bosch''' (1450-1516) was a [[Useful Notes/The Netherlands|Dutch]] [[The Middle Ages|medieval]] painter, best known for his colorful and grotesque depictions of [[Hell]]. He made several paintings about the subject and nobody has ever come close to his vivid and creepy visions of the place: Ugly [[Our Demons Are Different|demons]] torturing people in complete agony and scenes which predate [[Surrealism]] by five centuries. Most of these strange scenes are the product of symbolism that might be clear and understandable to a viewer in Bosch's age, but now, centuries later, can be difficult to decipher. Bosch's paintings show mankind in all of his corruptness and meanspiritness, doomed to end up in Hell, while only a few chosen ones will be allowed in [[Heaven]]. Even the Church is not spared in his fatal vision. He was able to depict Western European society during [[The Late Middle Ages]] in a satirical and memorable light, that still inspires artists nowadays.

* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: Historians know almost nothing about Bosch, except that he lived in 's-Hertogenbosch (nowadays in [[Useful Notes/The Netherlands|The Netherlands]]). The real meanings and messages of his paintings are still a matter of dispute. Some claim he was mad, others call him a moralist, a satirist, a non-believer, a religious fanatic, a member of some secret cult, etc.