world order. Spain, which has colonized the Netherlands, is moving toward the most horrific punishments and tortures for those who run afoul of the Spanish Inquisition. Under these circumstances, who openly criticizes the Pope and the Emperor? Hieronymus Bosch, that’s who. Or at least the artist we know in English as Hieronymus Bosch. Born as “Jheronimus van Aken” (Jerome van Aken in English) into a family of painters that included his father and grandfather, he appropriated the town’s name as his own surname as his artwork became more widely known in Europe. Historians don’t know for sure when he was born, but the consensus of scholars now puts his birth date at around 1450, when his native realm of Brabant was in the last throes of feudalism. Sometime in the late 1400s or early 1500s, Bosch completed the Haywain in his workshop on the market square just a few blocks walk from the museum and signed it: jheronimus bosch. Now, in the spring of 2016, tickets to Bosch: Visions of a Genius FOR A TIP OF A FEW PESETAS (MAYBE TEN AMERICAN CENTS BACK THEN) YOU COULD GET THE PRADO GUARD TO CLOSE THE SIDE PANELS OF THE TRIPTYCH AND REVEAL THE GRISAILLE SCENE ON THE PAINTING’S EXTERIOR PANELS DEPICTING THE BIRTH OF THE ROUND EARTH.
published regularly. New digital archives turn up new information about Bosch on a weekly basis. And works too frail to travel have been restored so they can be viewed by broader audiences. Almost half a million people saw Bosch: Visions of a Genius over a three-month period. The overwhelming demand for tickets was so high that the museum had to do away with being closed one day a week. It stayed open later and later, and eventually, by the end of the show, it was happily embracing a 24/7 schedule. We were fortunate enough to have bought tickets online months in advance. And so we toured the show every day for the better part of a week, breaking when needed for some TOP TO BOTTOM: JULIE O’CONNOR AND DAN BURSTEIN STAND IN FRONT OF A REPRODUCTION OF “THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS” IN THE JHERONIMUS BOSCH ART CENTER, ‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH, THE NETHERLANDS; DETAIL FROM CENTER PANEL OF “THE HAYWAIN” A TRIPTYCH PAINTING BY JHERONIMUS BOSCH. THIS IS A REPRODUCTION IN THE JHERONIMUS BOSCH ART CENTER, ’S-HERTOGENBOSCH, THE NETHERLANDS. © 2016 JULIE O’CONNOR PHOTO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
in this little-known museum in this somewhat obscure but utterly charming Dutch town have become almost as hard to get as seats for Hamilton on Broadway. After almost a decade of planning and relentless hard work and horse trading, the Noordbrabants Museum team has managed to bringabout twodozenmasterpieces by Bosch, his workshop, and his followers, back to his hometown from major museums and
Bosch cheese and Bosch beer in the museum’s brasserie, and darting out to take in the other sights of Den Bosch, such as: • The Jheronimus Bosch Art Center in an old decommissioned church, where all of Bosch’s works have been brilliantly reproduced with high definition photography and his signature monsters and demons brought to 3D life. • The house on the market square where Bosch’s family
collections in Europe and America. That’s over 80% of all the Bosch paintings that still survive. The museum team also assembled the best collection of Bosch’s drawings ever in one place. In the years prior to the show, the most intense scientific research ever done on Bosch was launched by a talented interdisciplinary team of curators, restorers, conservators, and technologists. New findings resulting from radiography approaches to the normally unseen underdrawings beneath the painted surface are being
lived and where he maintained a studio (now a souvenir store), and another house a stone’s throw away–now a shoe store–where the woman he would later marry (Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meerveen) grew up in a notably prosperous family. • The St. John’s Cathedral where some works by Bosch and his father may have once appeared, where 14 th century gargoyles are reminiscent of Bosch’s demons, and whose associated elite society,
WESTONMAGAZINEGROUP.COM 75
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs