Medieval artist Hieronymus Bosch recalled in Dutch town Den Bosch
The Netherlands marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Hieronymus Bosch.
A creature with a man’s body and a bird’s head; spherical worlds in a barren landscape; naked corpses strewn across the ground; and burning buildings. I’m not hallucinating but looking at images of paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, the most important and influential Dutch artist of the medieval era, who died five centuries ago this year.
“Did you know that George Lucas was inspired by Bosch’s The Last Judgment when creating Star Wars?” asks Charles de Mooij, director of the Noordbrabants Museum in s-Hertogenbosch (known colloquially as Den Bosch), the artist’s hometown, an hour south of Amsterdam in the Brabant region.
This, and more information about Bosc — born Jheronimus van Aken in 1450; he signed some of his paintings Jheronimus Bosch — will come to light during a year of commemorative cultural events starting with an important exhibition, Jheronimus Bosch: Visions of Genius, at the town’s 18th-century regional museum, running to May 8. Twenty paintings and 19 drawings have been returned from public and private collections across the world to the place where they were created and are displayed alongside seven panels painted by Bosch’s students as well as 70 artworks by his contemporaries. His most famous piece, The Garden of Earthly Delights, is staying at the Prado in Madrid, which will be paying its own homage to Bosch.
A highlight of the Dutch exhibition is a film presentation of the findings of the Bosch Research and Conservation Project, which has been studying and restoring the artist’s work. Twelve panels, including Ship of Fools (usually at Paris’s Louvre), will go on show for the first time since being cleaned, along with a newly authenticated drawing, Infernal Landscape.
So what inspired Bosch to create these fantastical, often disturbing images? “Bosch lived in turbulent times,” continues de Mooij. “The Duchy of Brabant was part of the Burgundian empire and the Dutch wanted it back so there were wars, looting, sickness and a fire demolished most of the town in 1463. Hell, in his paintings, is always depicted with a city on fire.”
Today, s-Hertogenbosch (“the duke’s forest”) is an attractive town of 150,000 inhabitants with artisan food shops, smart boutiques and dozens of bars and restaurants; predominantly Roman Catholic, it’s famous for its three-day pre-Lenten carnival (depicted by Hieronymus in several paintings, incidentally).
I meet Joop van Dijk of Kring Vrienden, an organisation of volunteers offering guided tours, next to the bronze statue of Bosch in the Markt where a 900-year-old market takes place every Saturday; a free light and sound show, Bosch by Night, will be projected on to the square’s buildings on selected evenings this year.
Joop tells me, “Not much is known about Bosch; even this statue is based on a drawing which is only thought to be him. We know he was born in Vughterstraat to a family of German painters from Aken (Aachen), then he moved to what is now a gift shop, then to a grander house across the marketplace, next to the Golden Tulip Hotel Central, after he married the daughter of a prosperous merchant. What’s important is that the layout of the town is the same as it was in his time so we do know we are walking where he walked.”
After a look at the original medieval vaulted cellar of the four-star Golden Tulip, we head off to explore the charming capital of Noord (North) Brabant. We turn into Torenstraat, location of Pilkington’s, a tearoom that serves the town’s sweet speciality, a Bossche bol (a tennis ball-size profiterole), before arriving at Sint-Janskathedraal (St John’s cathedral), where the funeral of Hieronymus took place on August 9, 1516; the location of his grave is not known.
Until the end of October, those with a head for heights can ascend 25m to the cathedral roof to see the 96 gargoyles and sculptures (19th-century replicas) that may have inspired or been inspired by Bosch. Some of the originals, weather-beaten, are on display in the cathedral’s museum, housed next door.
All the sights, including a specially created sculpture trail and the Jheronimus Bosch Art Centre where reproductions of his paintings are on show, are part of the Bosch Experience Discovery Tour. The self-guided route is available on a free map from the tourist office or as an app. Behind the centre is one of the town’s most interesting attractions: the Groot Tuighuis, a former pilgrim’s chapel dating from the 15th century, now the town’s history museum. Here visitors can experience what Den Bosch was like in 1500.
On the way back to the station I cross the narrow watercourse known as Binnendieze, running past or under the town’s buildings, along which visitors can take an hour-long commented Heaven and Hell cruise; the highlight is a tunnel projected with images from Bosch’s version of hell.
I stop at Bar Le Duc (Korenbrugstraat 5) to try the new Jheronimus beer brewed by its microbrewery. After a couple of glasses of this fruity ale I think I might know from where Bosch really got his inspiration.
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