From the museum’s website, 19 October 2015
With an expected 20 paintings (panels and triptychs) and 19 drawings on display, ‘Visions of Genius’ will be the largest retrospective of the work of Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450 – 1516) ever. The exhibition will be an unparalleled homage to the most important medieval artist Holland has produced: never before have so many works by this ‘master of devilish perfection’ been brought together in a single exhibition. For one time only, the majority of his oeuvre will be returning to ’s‑Hertogenbosch, the city where he was born as Jheronimus van Aken, where he painted his masterpieces and from which his artistic name of Bosch is derived. The exhibition will be the highlight of the Jheronimus Bosch 500 event year that will be celebrated in 2016 on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death.
Exceptional number of works on loan
The dozens of works on loan originate from prominent museums around the world, including the Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), Gallerie dell’Accademia/Palazzo Grimani (Venice) and Metropolitan Museum (New York). The loans include such works as the Haywain and The Temptation of St. Anthony (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid), the Ship of Fools (Musée du Louvre, Paris), the Death and the Master (National Gallery of Art, Washington) and The Hermit Saints (Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice). The exceptional number of works on loan to the exhibition will offer visitors the unique opportunity to closely study the revolutionary and highly imaginative visual language of Hieronymus Bosch.
Hieronymus Bosch
Typical for Bosch are the monsters, diabolical figures, angels and saints that populate his drawings and panels. His characteristic work, full of illusions and hallucinations, peculiar freaks and nightmares, inimitably represents the major themes of his time: temptation, sin and reckoning. Created in the period around 1500, the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Bosch’s paintings and drawings mysteriously reflect the relationship between the individual, his surroundings and his creator. Bosch is considered a brilliant artist who shows worlds in his works that his contemporaries never believed possible. He is an artist who ranks among the absolute world masters, whose work inspired the generations that followed and continues to inspire new artists to this very day.
“Bosch is the most important and most original medieval artist our country has ever produced. It is fantastic that, in the year 2016, the majority of his oeuvre can be seen in his hometown of ’s-Hertogenbosch. A fabulous opportunity for a new generation to also get acquainted with this work, which is unique in every respect.”
Charles de Mooij, Director of Het Noordbrabants Museum
Related CODART publications
Matthijs Ilsink [1], “Jheronimus Bosch and Connoisseurship. Remarks Prompted by the Bosch Research and Conservation Project (BRCP)”, CODARTfeatures, December 2015.