Hieronymus Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch, also Jeroen Bosch, (c. 1450 – August,
1516) was a prolific Dutch painter of the 15th and 16th century.
Many of his works depict sin and human moral failings. Bosch used
images of demons, half-human animals and machines to evoke fear
and confusion and to portray the evil of man. The works contain
complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic
figures and iconography, some of which was obscure even in his own
time. He is said to have been an inspiration to the surrealism movement
in the 20th century.
His true name was Hieronymus (or Jeroen) van Aken. He signed some
of his paintings with Bosch (pronounced as Boss in Dutch), derived
from his birthplace 's-Hertogenbosch. In Spanish he is often called
El Bosco.
Born to a family of a Flemish painters, he spent most of his life
in 's-Hertogenbosch, a town in the south of today's Netherlands.
In 1463, some 4000 houses in the town were destroyed by a catastrophic
fire, which the then about 13-year-old Bosch may have witnessed.
This might have been a contributing factor in his obsession with
Hell. He became a popular painter and even received commissions
from abroad. In 1488 he joined the Brotherhood of Our Lady, an arch
conservative religious group of some 40 influential citizens of
's-Hertogenbosch.
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