Focus on: Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch is known by different names in different countries. ‘Hieronymus’ can be translated as Jérôme or Jheronimus, and he is known in Spain as El Bosco. Bosch was born, lived and worked in the Roman Catholic town of Hertogenbosch (which translates as ‘the Duke's forest’). He took his working name from the name of the town. In Bosch’s lifetime, Western Europe was in a near continuous state of religious upheaval, intense intellectual activity, and technical innovation – the rise of printmaking in the fifteenth century was one of the big changes. There were also repeated outbreaks of plague. By the sixteenth century, humanist ideas from Italy – with its renewed interest in classical scholarship – took root in the rest of Europe, and were promoted at centres of learning such as the University of Wittenberg where, in 1517, Martin Luther set in motion the events leading to the Protestant Reformation.

In this course we will look at:
• The religious and intellectual life of Hieronymus Bosch’s circle and how their ideas might have impacted his work
• Key works by Hieronymus Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Haywain, The Seven Deadly Sins and others.
• The patrons of Hieronymus Bosch during his lifetime, and the collection of the artist’s work King Philip II of Spain.