9/25/2023 0 Comments Pieter brugel the elderand bosch![]() ![]() ![]() No enemy is present in “Alpine Landscape with a River Descending from the Mountains,” one of the majestic landscape drawings Bruegel made while crossing the Alps. But any traces the “enemy” disappear in Bruegel’s work. As a young designer of engravings, Bruegel imitated the wildly popular Bosch. ![]() Pieter Bruegel was born nine years after Bosch died. Does Bosch, in directing viewers right to his most lurid scenes, cause them (us) to sin by visually taking part as voyeurs in humanity’s unbridled flesh-fest? Whatever one thinks of Koerner’s point or of Bosch’s image, this particular painting clarifies the distance between Bosch’s worldview and Bruegel’s. If so, Koerner raises a sticky point about Bosch’s role as an artist. Or perhaps Bosch’s battle between God and Satan is the subject, the wages of rampant sinfulness, making this a religious work. Perhaps the altarpiece design, which could be kept closed, was crafted to disguise a secular painting. The picture may have been a risky undertaking, since where and when Bosch worked, masturbation, adultery and same-sex intercourse were offenses punishable by death. The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Boschīosch gave “The Garden of Delights” a typical triptych form, but in place of a biblical scene in the center, he depicts explicit sexual and violent content, frolics in a sexual theme park, though no one there looks happy. Today, the painting is one of the most popular works on view at the Prado. According to a diary account by an eyewitness, the painting was kept at their palace in a hidden chamber and shown privately for the owner’s amusement. Koerner examines it in “The Unspeakable Subject.” Contemporary scholars think the work was commissioned by one of the counts of Nassau, either Henry or Engelbert II, rather than by any church. Atypical in most Epiphany scenes, Bosch’s enemy contaminates the universe.īosch’s most elusive painting, originally untitled but in this book called “The Garden of Delights,” has perplexed centuries of viewers. Behind the exotic bird atop the African king’s gift lurk several enigmatic figures, including an exposed man draped in red, with a possibly leprous sore on his ankle. Anthony” and the contorted faces of onlookers in “Christ Carrying the Cross.” Surprisingly, the enemy infiltrates “Adoration of the Magi. Bosch adds exotic animals, plants and other menacing characters to biblical scenes to show “enemy presence.” Note the perversity of nature in the grotesque figures of “The Temptation of St. Since God and Satan (God’s enemy) battle across time and place, the enemy is pervasive, beginning in Eden. It refers to the cosmic warfare that underlies Bosch’s religious works. To understand Bosch, the concept of “enemy painting” is key. I found it worthwhile to look up many of the paintings online in order to zoom in on the telling details. Part II, “Pieter Bruegel the Elder,” compellingly makes the author’s case with one beautiful painting after another. Part I, “Hieronymus Bosch,” is the longest, most complex and controversial section of the book. Readers may wish, as Koerner suggests, to begin with the thesis in Chapter 4 of the Introduction, “From Bosch to Bruegel.” I enjoyed returning to the opening chapters later, as a finale. All effort expended will be richly rewarded. While historians and theologians can readily dive into the discussion, general readers may find it demanding. ![]() Over and over, the author shows readers how to look at art, a demonstration that alone is worth the price of the book. Mellon Lectures that Koerner delivered in 2008 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The author observes, compares and, most important, contrasts the works of two Netherlander artists, Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) and Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-69).ĭecades of scholarship and personal experience inform this book, based on the A. Koerner’s thesis is that Bruegel, who at first imitated Bosch, diverged and ultimately surpassed him as he developed a new focus for painting. The author observes, compares and, most important, contrasts the works of two Netherlander artists, Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) and Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-69). How and why is the subject of Bosch & Bruegel, Koerner’s fascinating and lavishly illustrated tome. In Northern Europe, however, that practice changed during the 16th century. Any ordinary people in paintings stood anonymously in the background or as bit players in dramas about the gods, biblical characters and saints, military heroes and royalty. Instead, painters treated religious and historical subjects. Genre painting, as such paintings are known today, lay in the future. ![]()
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