The Curious World of Hieronymus Bosch (2016) Poster

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10/10
The tormented world of Hieronymus Bosch
jkbonner111 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The documentary titled The Curious World of Hieronymus Bosch directed by David Bickerstaff came out of the 2016 art exhibit of Bosch's works at the Noordbrabants museum in 's-Hertogenbosch, organized to observe the 500th anniversary of Bosch's death. Bosch (born Jheronimus or Jeroen Anthonissen van Aken in the year 1450 or thereabouts and died in the year 1516) was a native son of 's-Hertogenbosch who took the surname he used from his native city. Charles de Mooij put the exhibit together and persuaded several museums that had a work by Bosch to contribute what they had for the exhibit. He secured 20 of the 25 surviving panels, including several triptychs, and quite a few drawings attributed to Bosch. The exhibition was a success.

I was familiar with the works of Hieronymus Bosch before I saw the movie. If you're a Bosch fan (I am), by all means see the movie if you have the opportunity. However, a caveat. If very disturbing art upsets you, then you would not like the art of Hieronymus Bosch because his depictions of hell and some of his other works, e.g., Christ before Pontius Pilate (Ecce Homo) and Christ bearing the cross (two different versions), are very disturbing indeed. In fact most of his work falls into this category in one way or another.

I also take issue with the art historians (all British as far as I could tell) who periodically make appearances within the movie to give the viewer their impressions of what Hieronymus Bosch and his art are all about. All in all they give Bosch too modern a spin. Although I found some of their comments interesting, IMO they missed the primal impetus that drove Bosch's art. And that central mover was the lifeworld in which Bosch was born and in which he played out his existence. This lifeworld was that of the Late Middle Ages, which in Northern Europe covers roughly 1350-1500. The Renaissance, which had begun in Italy around the second half of the 14th century, involved much of Central and Northern Italy, which at that time consisted of city-states, various principalities, republics, and the Papal states. Due to wars fought in Italy by northern powers such as France in the 15th century, the culture of the Renaissance slowly spread into Northern Europe and began making its mark in the late 15th and early 16th centuries as characterized by such prominent figures as Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) and Sir Thomas More in England (1478-1535).

Although very little is known of Bosch's personal life, I contend that the spread of the Renaissance had little or no effect on Bosch's life and that his mind-set was dominated by the dark themes of the Late Middle Ages. The Late Middle Ages was an age of pessimism. The Black Death (bubonic plague) struck Europe in the middle of the 14th century and is said to have killed off a third of Europe's population. The Catholic Church had always preached that one's life in this world was transitory and would soon be replaced by an eternity in the afterlife where an individual would either spend all eternity in bliss in heaven or a terrifying existence in hell. This idea is expressed quite vividly in Bosch's Last Judgment (two slightly different versions exist: one around 1482 and the other around 1504-1508). The Church's teachings became more dire and drastic after the Black Death because what was left of the population either sought solace from religion to compensate for the briefness of life on this earth or else they felt the futility and ridiculousness of existence and succumbed to the vices, foibles, and follies of the pleasures of this world (the sins of the flesh), a view that is amply expressed in Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights (created somewhere between 1495-1505). It's pertinent to point out that his works were very popular at the time and frequently imitated, which emphasizes the importance of this worldview at this time.

In summary, his art mesmerizes not only for the message he was trying to convey but also because of his unique artistic abilities and his vivid imagination. He must have deeply thought how hell, purgatory,* and heaven must really truly be like. This assumes they exist of course but I'm firmly convinced that Bosch truly believed they did exist and that one of these three possibilities awaits us all at the time of death. Quite possibly he experienced dreadful nightmares that spurred on his art. I think it's almost impossible for us today to get into this head-set and its effect on the human psyche.

Although dating history by dividing it into different periods is somewhat arbitrary, it does help categorize history into roughly accurate slices characterized by different worldviews that became prominent at that time. The period following the Late Middle Ages in Europe was the Renaissance which gave birth to what we call Modernity, beginning around 1500 and extending to the present. The spokesman of the early part of this Modern period was Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who in his Novum Organum (the new tool; the new method) predicted the rise of modern science, which continues to this day as the primary driver and overarching worldview of the modern world.

I saw this movie at Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, CA on January 23, 2017.

Because I find Bosch's works truly capture the worldview of his day and done convincingly with great depth of imagination―a worldview that has long since vanished―I give this movie 10 out of 10.

* Purgatory was a temporary place where souls who had behaved somewhat badly suffered but were eventually allowed into heaven. On the other hand damnation in hell or bliss in heaven existed for all eternity. There was no escaping from the tortures and horrors of hell.
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