Hieronymus Bosch
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
Hieronymus Bosch Details
From Booklist Bosch's elaborately, often monstrously detailed art remains bewitching and bewildering lo these many years since his death, in 1516. Books about this influential Netherlandish painter and his most famous work, the endlessly surprising Garden of Earthly Delights, are many. Why, then, produce yet another volume on Bosch? Because the more one looks at his intricate paintings, the more one sees, especially in the nearly 300 magnificent color reproductions, including breathtaking close-ups, that distinguish this top-of-the-line tome. North Renaissance art historian Silver's fresh and far-ranging commentary interweaves biography with discussions of Bosch's aesthetic breakthroughs and responses to his social, religious, and political milieu. Silver traces the inspirations for, and seeks to decode, Bosch's complex iconography, carefully analyzes Bosch's depictions of saints, and avers that Bosch's "most original innovation was his production of triptychs dedicated to moral issues." In Leap (2000), naturalist Terry Tempest Williams used binoculars in the Prado to scrutinize the panoramic wildness of Garden of Earthly Delights; here all is in exquisite and intimate focus, bringing Bosch to light as never before. Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Read more Review "Hieronymus Bosch carefully explores the often-nightmarish mind of this ever-illusive artist. Enormously impressive in its scholarly detail." -- Art Times "Every page proclaims high seriousness. This is the scholarly volume on the artist for our time." -- Arizona Daily Star Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
It's a funny thing... when I saw this book at a friend's house I immediately rushed out and bought a copy and I love it... or at least I did love it until I saw the newer, bigger and better-annotated Taschen Bosch volume, which leaves this one in the shade. But this book is still great, particularly for the many full-page details. It's all about the pictures, of course. Bosch scholarship, though growing, is still sketchy, speculative and unspectacular. Personally I think it's better to avoid the few known mundane facts of his life and just dive into the images with a mind unencumbered by dull facts.
