Bosch, Hieronymus (van Aeken) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. II, p. 1114

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

BOSCH, HIERONYMUS (VAN AEKEN). - Dutch painter, b. in Bosco Ducale (s'Hertogenbosch) c. 1450,

Article illustration — (photo Soprint., Cagliari) BOSA - Facciata della chiesa di S. Onofrio (sec. XIV).

d. there in 1516. His activity, documented from 1480 onwards, took place mainly in Bosco Ducale. His training, still uncertain, seems due more to the local Gothic tradition than to the art of the Eyck brothers (or other painters, such as, for example, Ouwater) or that of the "Master of the Virgo inter Virgines"; to these artists, in fact, can be traced back, however vaguely, those coloristic peculiarities which contributed, together with the singularity of the choice and interpretation of subjects, to rapidly make B.'s works famous. Although alien to Italian Renaissance art, his paintings soon entered Italy (as well as Spain) where Guicciardini praised their nobility of invention and bizarre imagination. Even in his religious representations, there always remained something magical, indeed macabre. His taste for the mysterious had a vast influence after his death, not only on P. Elder (v.), but also on Herri met de Bles, J. Mandyn, G. Mostaert and others. Among his masterpieces, the triptychs of Madrid, Lisbon, and the Escorial should be mentioned. In Italy, paintings by his hand are found in the Doge's Palace in Venice. - See Pl. CXV.

BIBL.: Notizie d'opere di disegno, pubblicate da J. Morelli, 2ª ed. a cura di G. Frizzoni, Bologna 1884, p. 196 ff.; W. Cohen, s. V. in Thieme-Becker, IV, p. 386; M. I. Friedlaender, Altniederländische Malerei, V, Berlin 1927, p. 79 ff.; Catalogo dell'Esportazione B., ed. D. Hannema and J. G. V. Gelder, Rotterdam 1936; C. de Tolnay, B., Basel 1937; L. Baldass, B., Vienna 1941; G. Vinzi, Demoni di B., in Primato, 4 (1943), p. 245 ff.; J. Combe, B., Paris 1946 (with recent bibl.).

Bernardo Degenhart