Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch is a Northern Renaissance Dutch painter, enigmatic visionary whose fantastic and dreamlike work explores the moral and spiritual obsessions of the late Middle Ages with an overflowing imagination without equivalent in art history. Deeply rooted in the religious and moral tradition of his time, he creates teeming compositions populated with terrifying hybrid creatures, grotesque demons, and infernal scenes that visualize with hallucinating inventiveness the temptations, sins and torments of sinful humanity. His monumental triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights constitutes one of the most fascinating and mysterious works in art history, presenting a panoramic vision of paradise, carnal pleasures and hell in a symbolic language of inexhaustible richness that continues to defy interpretation. Rediscovered by 20th century Surrealists who see him as a precursor of the unconscious and dream, he also influences fantastic and symbolist currents. Deeply Christian moralist painter using the grotesque and fantastic to denounce human vices, he creates a unique visual universe that anticipates by several centuries Surrealist and fantastic art.