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  • Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draftsman: Catalogue Raissoné by Matthijs Ilsink et al., and: Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draftsman: Technical Studies by Luuk Hoogstede et al.
  • Joseph Leo Koerner (bio)
Matthijs Ilsink, Jos Koldeweij, Ron Sprong, Luuk Hoogstede, Robert G. Erdmann, Rik Klein Gotink, Hanneke Nap, and Daan Velhuizen, Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draftsman: Catalogue Raissoné (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016), 463 pp.
Luuk Hoogstede, Ron Sprong, Robert G. Erdmann, Rik Klein Gotink, Matthijs Ilsink, Jos Koldeweij, Hanneke Nap, and Daan Velhuizen, Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draftsman: Technical Studies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016), 463 pp.

The greatest fantasist of the European artistic tradition died on August 9, 1516, five centuries ago last year. This anniversary occasioned a large spate of shows, publications, films, and conferences, including monumental exhibitions at the Prado in Madrid, where the greatest number of the artist's works are housed, and at the Noordbrabants Museum, which, bringing together thirty-six of his approximately forty-four generally accepted works, drew nearly half a million visitors to the artist's hometown of 's-Hertogenbosch. Of all the centenary activities, however, none will be as long lasting as the efforts of the Bosch Research and Conservation Project (BRCP). In the two lavish volumes under review, summarizing findings from more than six years of close scientific and connoisseurial [End Page 543] analysis, the project's team of authors has proposed, with a new level of precision, what will for the foreseeable future count as the authentic oeuvre of Hieronymus Bosch.

Bosch's art is notoriously elusive. Regarding his most famous work, which goes by the modern title The Garden of Delights, there exists no scholarly consensus whatsoever about its subject, purpose, or meaning—whether, for example, the painting is "for" or "against" all the nudity it displays. Even more disputed, however, are the boundaries of his artistic output, both because, from a very early date, painters imitated and even deceptively forged his creations and because, like most masters of his time, he produced his paintings collaboratively with the help of multiple assistants and workshop collaborators active at every stage of production, from the paintings' underdrawings (applied in dark colors on the colored ground layer in order to prepare the composition) through to the final paint layer. Unusually for the period, Bosch signed some of his works prominently, but not all signed works are by his hand, and—most vexingly—with one exception none of the surviving works is documented by contemporary contacts or inventories, making it exceedingly difficult to establish a firm measure of what does or does not count as a Bosch. Basing its conclusions on dendrochronology, advanced imaging techniques, informed and collective connoisseurship, and a set of "touchstones" for quality, chronology, and workshop practice, the BRCP proposes that Bosch is both a radically unique master aware—even explicitly boastful—of his genius and a brand name for collaboratively made products.

From the moment of its launching half a millennium ago, the brand "Hieronymus Bosch" promised puzzlement for its beholders. Lavishly illustrated and meticulously argued, the BRCP's volumes do not resolve all the riddles; but solving once and for all many old problems of attribution, technique, and provenance, they enable future scholars to tackle the enigmas that make this artist absolutely relevant today. [End Page 544]

Joseph Leo Koerner

Joseph Leo Koerner is Thomas Professor of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is the author of Caspar David Friedrich and the Subject of Landscape, which received the Mitchell Prize for art history; Bosch and Bruegel: From Enemy Painting to Everyday Life; The Reformation of the Image; The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art; and Die Suche nach dem Labyrinth—Der Mythos von Daidalos und Ikarus. He wrote and presented a three-part series, "Northern Renaissance," for BBC Television, as well as a BBC documentary, "Vienna: City of Dreams."

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