Bosch The 5th centenary exhibition

This is the catalogue for an exhibition at the Museo del Prado in Madrid marking the 500-year anniversary of the death of Flemish painter Jheronimus Bosch (c. 1450-1516). Essays provide an updated biography, drawn from all known documents detailing Bosch's life, paintings, and patrons in his hometown of 's-Hertogenbosch. Examined in detail, the textual and visual sources provide further information on Bosch's artistic goals, which have been long misunderstood, in focusing on the foibles of humans and their punishment in hell. This fuller cultural context allows for a more accurate examination of the reception of Bosch's paintings by the original audience, including the Catholic Church, royal patrons, and the new merchant class. Bosch's connection to the Habsburg court of Flanders and Spain explains why the Prado holds the world's largest collection of Bosch paintings, many of them collected by Philip II of Spain during the Renaissance. Primary sources enrich the historical narrative of Bosch and his art, and the complete catalogue entries provide the history of ownership and recent technological research on the physical state of each richly reproduced painting. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --Allison Lee Palmer, University of Oklahoma