The march of progress

A comment on man's technobedazzlement of today and an obvious nod to Bosch's Haywain.

Hieronymus Bosch Bonus Pages

Hieronymus Bosch the unauthorized biography

It came from the printers the other day. In English, Dutch and Danish for now. German and other languages are to follow. Over four years in the making. Now the promotional gauntlet awaits... 

Boschian landscape

The near-final version of the back cover of my book on Hieronymus Bosch. It goes to print in a week.

Nosey neighbours

A new cover design for my book on Hieronymus Bosch. Over the black ceiling will be the title. For now, i'll have to bear with the composition looking rather off-balance. The book goes to print this month!

Yet another tavern

Another sketch for my book on Jheronimus Bosch, which i am happy to announce as completed! You heard it here first!

Dutch, German and English editions have been secured, others are likely to follow.

This sketch was somewhat inspired by the photographs of Rheinlandish farmers by August Sander.  I have been scanning a lot of these sketches for the purpose of lectures/presentations. I did one last week. A nice experience.

Hieronymus Bosch meets the lumpenproletariat

Much has been said about Bosch being very rich and therefore he could paint whatever he wanted, but this is nonsense. In those times, artists worked on assignments only. And success did not come overnight for Bosch. Only after around 1500, he became an international household name. But even then, it remains unclear how much he was paid for his assignments. I suspect that it may not have been as much as superstar painters like Van der Weyden or Cranach the Elder. What we do know, is that he belonged to the class that paid the most taxes in his city. A telling fact is that he left no money after his death.

By our standards, the life of the rich was not that great, so that of the poor must have been, well, shit.

The resemblance of this composition with that of Martin Schoengauer's Saint Anthony is damn intentional.

A cosy tavern in full colour

A panel from my comic on Hieronymus Bosch (from chapter 4) which i had posted before in its earlier stages. The palet is a lot warmer than what i prefer to use in general, so it was a difficult colouring job. 

The streets of 's-Hertogenbosch, 1482

A panel from chapter two of my Jheronimus book. The protagonist in search for source material for The Garden of Earthly Delights. One might think of medieval towns as riddled with just narrow alleys, but this is not the case in 's-Hertogenbosch, judging from how the main streets have not changed according to old city maps. (There were more canals than there are now, however)
My confidence about the colouring grows. Steady as she goes...

They hang pigs, don't they? pt 2

... In fact, it's a beautiful day for a hanging!

Continuing colouring my graphic novel on Hieronimus Bosch. I'm in chapter two now. Crowds are an important element and pretty difficult. I don't want them to end up as one brownish slush, but not too brightly coloured either. The bright blue sky I'm also still a bit doubtful about, despite my sardonic opening line. It does not quite fit the colour range I had chosen.

It would be tempting to pick colours from Bosch's paintings directly, but that is a bit weak IMO. And they are quite diverse anyway. The Garden of Earthly Delights is quite fresh-looking -in contrast to the semi-grisaille of The Wayfarer, for instance.

The exectutioner is a detail not to be missed. No black hood or studbelts - that is something out of modern day cartoons. In old images, you won't find any in that stereotypical garb. They were obliged to wear special clothing connected to their dishonourable profession, but this would be local. I could not find out what was the costum in s-Hertogenbosch around 1500, so I picked something yellow-ish. Yellow being the least favoured colour and connected to Judas and the Jews, of course.

The colour of mud

Started colouring the pages of my graphic novel on Bosch (160 pages!)

A few minor changes on this one, which i had done as a test some months before.

They hang pigs, don't they?

Another public execution scene from my book about Jheronimus Bosch. Animals would be hanged in medieval times, for al kinds of antropocentric reasons. It goes back to the book of Leviticus. (arguably the most bloodthirsty, psychopathic part from the bible)
In one source Bosch was described as the Elias Canetti of his time, observer of irate crowds. That was one of the best things i read about him.

A patchwork of mini paintings

 Some more snippets of my research on Hieronymus Bosch. This print of The Last Judgement by Allart Duhameel was likely done after a model by Bosch. Duhameel was working as an architect as well as an engraver. The two men must have been good friends, as they have borrowed elements of each others' work.

But my point here is not to prove that they have done so, but that Bosch's paintings were often like a patchwork of mini paintings and that this was common practice around 1500 AD. In this print, i found a detail that was repeated elsewhere. Somewhat to the right at the foreground, among the many funny-looking monsters, a little guy is leading a parade while making a phallic*) gesture.

The same guy turns up at the feet of Saint Christopher on another print by Duhameel! Without the flag and the dragon's tail, but it's the same character.

It's now easy to imagine Bosch and his family collaborating on their paintings by piecing together several designs and sketches, in stead of the cliche'd situation of the master who designs everything and then leaves the boring bits to be painted by assistants. 

Many elements from The Garden of Earthly Delights look like intials from manuscripts anyway.

One problem i am still left with is how paintings were copied on a different scale. I suspect some sort of pantograph ('tekenaap' in Dutch, or 'drawing monkey') was used, but the official reading is that it was invented roughly a century after Bosch's death.

*) Possibly the sign of Asmodeus, but not sure about that. 

Sketchbook #51

Front and back of my new sketchbook, with portraits of the apothecary owner and Bosch's youngest nephew Jan Goesenszoon.

Jiggler Riot

Some recent sketches for my Jheronimus Bosch book, which show the influence of the "1971 Imperial Jigglers" about which i posted below.

Some alcohol-induced political ranting. However, in vino veritas.

"Only fools will believe that the rich got rich by hard work only!"

"True that. Rather, they have seized the gold of those who died during the Plague by theft or by forging their  last will".

The riot should eventually look a bit less silly than this. But i am happy with how some of the angry mugs turned out.

The knife

The surgeon and his trusty, somewhat rusty bloodletting knife. A panel from my Jheronimus Bosch comic.

God does not play dice but maybe Satan does

A quick sketch of medieval gamblers. A common theme in art as the church, its main commissioner at the time, warned against gambling, because, well, you shouldn't.

Cut-throat society

Some sketches after Bosch's Haywain, Visions of the Afterlife and Judgement Day plus one hellish scene by one of his followers. Not just stonecutting but also a lot of throat-cutting going on in his work! Not regarding the floating giant knives.

Sketchbook #50

Two portraits of secundary characters from my Bosch story. The first is a fictional one, his former teacher in illumination. The other is one of the architects of the Saint Jan cathedral in Den Bosch.

Grieving mother

A recent sketchbook page, with random studies after Hieronymus Bosch, Matthias Gruenewald and Nicolas Presl.  
Sofar, I have been hesitant to use the theme of the high child death rates in Bosch's time, but now i think i might use it. Bosch and his wife might not have had any, but since births were not registered, we can't be certain. What we do know is that artists would hide personal messages in their commissioned work, so the grief of a donor may well have been the same as the artist's.