Illustration Survey- Artist Profile Page Based on Three Historic Paths

Artist Profile page –
Every student will create a wiki page of their own which will feature a profile of an individual artist of their choice whose works connect to the subject/content of their assigned module.

I was assigned Module 2:
Three Historic Paths: The Holy Artist, The Social/Political Artist, The Aesthetic Artist

How have artists used used these paths and their skills to enrich, enlighten, convince, and inform

1. Discuss the effect religious art has had on the general public. Consider why you think this art was created.
2. When art is used to comment on society, what tools does the artist have to motivate change? 3. The creation of art enriches the life of the artist. What ways have artists found to enrich the lives of viewers?

I chose Hieronymus Bosch for my essay due to the topic.
.........Begin Essay............

HIERONYMUS BOSCH

Hieronymus Bosch was born in the mid-fifteenth century(1450 – August 9, 1516), the exact date is unknown. He is considered an early Netherlandish painter and although he was originally born Joroen Anthoniszoon van Aken, he is known by the name of Hieronymus Bosch derived from his birthplace of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, commonly referred to as “Den Bosch” (pronounced as Boss in Dutch). He is widely known for his fantastic remarkable creatures and visual interpretations of hell, death, sin and folly. He is celebrated as an eccentric painter of religious visions and was recognized as one of the most clever, most perceptive, most apocalyptic masters of his time. His use of symbolism in his terrifying creations seemed bizarre, distasteful and sometimes even heretical. His paintings are full of shocking artistic depictions of human sin and ethical failings and his work is widely known for its fantastic imagery illustrating moral and religious concepts and narratives. In the twentieth century, his work has been “rediscovered” as tourists are in awe of his great triptychs of the unusual.

(Shown Above)
Portrait of Hieronymus Bosch. Red and black crayon believed to be drawn as a self portrait in his later years.

Life & Biography

Little is known of Bosch’s life or training. He left behind no letters or diaries like many other great artists, and what has been identified has been taken from brief references to him in the municipal records of 's-Hertogenbosch. Nothing is known of his personality or his thoughts on the meaning of his art. Considering how unusual his art was makes this difficult to analyze any of the real or true meaning behind his creation of them.

Bosch lived all of his life in and near‘s-Hertogenbosch which was a flourishing city in the fifteenth century in the south of the present-day Netherlands. His grandfather, Jan van Aken, was a painter along with four of his five sons. Bosch’s father, Anthonius van Aken acted as artistic adviser to the Brotherhood of Our Lady, an arch-conservative religious group of some 40 influential citizens of 's-Hertogenbosch, and 7,000 'outer-members' from around Europe. In 1488 Bosch himself joined the highly respected Brotherhood of Our Lady (a Virgin-Mary cult). The fraternity had a white swan as its emblem, which is curious considering its sacriligious use in his paintings. It is generally assumed that either Bosch’s father or one of his uncles taught the artist to paint, however none of their works survived over time.

When he was about thirty years old around July 15, 1481, he married Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meervenne, who came from a wealthy family in Hertogenbosch. Bosch lived with his wife in a house on a market square. They had no children but it is likely that he lived a comfortable life and may have enjoyed considerable artistic freedom.

In 1463, 4,000 houses in the town were destroyed by a catastrophic fire, which the then (approximately) 13-year-old Bosch presumably witnessed. It is easy to wonder if such a traumatic experience may have effected the young artists mind, especially when the content of hell is depicted in much of his artwork.

Bosch became a popular painter in his lifetime and often received commissions from abroad. Bosch lived during a time of turbulence in western Europe, they were unsettling and anxious years. This was just before the Protestant Reformation and there was widespread discontent with Roman Catholic clergy, who were believed to have become corrupt and immoral. The general public were increasingly losing respect for the moral tenets of these leaders, which, without strong moral leadership, led them to hedonistic and greedy behavior. Heretical sects were common and in reaction, in an effort to control the populace, Catholic Inquisitions condemned citizens as witches, wizards, and heretics. Hangings, beheadings, and burnings-at-the-stake became everyday public sights. The age was marked by violence and pessimism. Kings and dukes were murdered, soldiers pillaged and killed, cruelty to the poor and the animals were prevalent. Epidemics plagued the populace and killed thousands. More than the printed word, art communicated moral messages, because most people were illiterate. Images of the devil and monsters were used as warnings and premonitions of the coming Last Judgment, which was predicted for the year 1500. It is quite possible that Bosch's paintings were commissioned by discontented new leaders who had lost respect for established authorities of the Church, which would explain the choice of his acrid anti-clerical images. The old medieval order imposed by the Church was cracking under the growth of cities, the power and commerce of capitalism, the rise of national states, demands for religious reform and the beginnings of science.

More and more minds were growing curious, analytical and adventurous. The future seemed dim with visions of demons, darkness and hell. Opposing the current times, Bosch portrayed his message with a visual impact so fierce, it chilled his contemporaries and fascinates us through the centuries. Historians point to this time as the beginning of the modern world.

Being so close to the medieval years, the use of symbolism is rampant throughout his work. He painted at a time when symbols constituted a basic visual language. Paintings were displayed in public, mostly in churches, and were a proclamation for everyone to read. A few examples of symbols used in Bosch’s painting are:

fruit–a symbol of carnal pleasure
flames–a symbol of the fires of hell
mussel shells–representing infidelity
ice skaters–folly
eggs–sexual creation
ears–gossip

In an analysis done about forty years ago, the Dutch scholar Dirk Bax concluded that Bosch was a moralist with contempt for the lower classes. He had no sympathy for the poor and used bitter symbolism to satirize beggars, monks, nuns, soldiers, peasants, pilgrims, whores, gypsies, vagrants and jesters. He occasionally lashed out an emperors and nobles as well, but rarely against burghers like himself and others of the wealthy middle class. He vented his anger the most on the excess of lust, license, drunkenness, gluttony, folly and stupidity. Some art historians have since interpreted Bosch’s paintings as displaying less pessimism and more understanding of the difficult plight of his fellow human beings.

The way Bosch painted the visual images of hell, sin, and religion still captures our attention today. His paintings have inspired Broadway shows, poetry, music (the Dead Can Dance cover for “Aion” is a tiny portion taken from the Garden of Earthly Delights’ central panel) and maybe even the surrealist art movement. Bosch could visualize these horrific images like no other. Many have tried to copy his style, but very few had succeeded to imitate the unique style. Bosch was a man ahead of his time; the time frame in which he created his masterpieces that these sins, follies and stupidities occurred could very well be depictions of current day events. He is said to have been an inspiration to the surrealism movement in the 20th century.

Work

The Garden of Earthly (or Worldly) Delights, pictured above, is Bosch's most widely known triptych (works of three paintings on wooden panels that are attached to each other) although he produced several triptychs throughout the years. This painting, for which the original title has not survived, depicts paradise with Adam and Eve, and many wondrous animals on the left panel, the earthly delights with numerous nude figures and tremendous fruit and birds on the middle panel, and hell with depictions of fantastic punishments of the various types of sinners on the right panel. When the exterior panels are closed the viewer can see, painted in grisaille, God creating the Earth. These paintings—especially the Hell panel—are painted in a comparatively sketchy manner which contrasts with the traditional Flemish style of paintings, where the smooth surface—achieved by the application of multiple transparent glazes—conceals the brushwork.

In this painting, and more powerfully in works such as his Temptation of St. Anthony (Lisbon), (pictured below- center panel)

Bosch draws with his brush. Not surprisingly, Bosch is also one of the most revolutionary draftsmen in the history of art, producing some of the first autonomous sketches in Northern Europe.

Bosch never dated his paintings and signed only some of them, which is unusual for the time.

All in all, about 25 paintings remain today that are attributed to him. In the late sixteenth century, Philip II of Spain acquired many of Bosch's paintings after the painter's death, including some probably commissioned and collected by Spaniards active in Bosch's hometown; as a result, the Prado Museum in Madrid now owns The Garden of Earthly Delights, the circular tabletop of The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things (shown below)

the The Haywain Triptych (shown below)

and The Stone Operation (Shown Below)

.

Debates on Attribution

The exact number of Bosch's surviving works has been a subject of considerable debate. He signed only seven of his paintings, and there is uncertainty whether all the paintings once ascribed to him were actually from his hand. It is known that from the early sixteenth century onwards numerous copies and variations of his paintings began to circulate. In addition, his style was highly influential, and was widely imitated by his numerous followers. It is also said that he may have signed several other signatures that were certainly not his own which also help account for the very few paintings that can be officially attributed to him.

Style

Some see Bosch as a proto-type medieval surrealist, and parallels are often made with the twentieth century Spanish artist Salvador Dali. Others attempt to interpret his imagery using the language of Freudian psychology. However, all are debated and are commonly rejected by each other; according to Gibson "what we choose to call the libido was denounced by the medieval church as original sin; what we see as the expression of the subconscious mind was for the Middle Ages the promptings of God or the Devil”.

References and Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch
http://www.biography.com/articles/Hieronymus-Bosch-9220497
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/b/bosch/biograph.html
http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Hieronymus_Bosch/Biography/
http://www.answers.com/topic/hieronymus-bosch
http://www.artbible.info/art/biography/jheronimus-bosch.html
http://www.hieronymus-bosch.org/search
http://www.morbidoutlook.com/art/articles/1999_00_bosch.html
http://solomonsmusic.net/BoschBio.htm
http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Bosch_Hieronymus.html