<How can we estimante Hieronymus Bosch as a surrealist painter or a holy picture painter?>
The world we live is called "Reality". From old times, curious and unique artists enjoyed to imagine new world unlike "Reality". They expressed their thoughts and now we call them "Surrealist". Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality." Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself and/or an idea/concept. Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. With 'dadaism', "Surrealist" became famous and many artists began to draw their own creative ideas. 'Dadaism' was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. Many claim Dada began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916, spreading to Berlin shortly thereafter but the height of New York Dada was the year before, in 1915. To quote Dona Budd's The Language of Art Knowledge,
Dada was born out of negative reaction to the horrors of World War I. This international movement was begun by a group of artists and poets associated with the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. Dada rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition. The origin of the name Dada is unclear; some believe that it is a nonsensical word. Others maintain that it originates from the Romanian artists Tristan Tzara's and Marcel Janco's frequent use of the words "da, da," meaning "yes, yes" in the Romanian language. Another theory says that the name "Dada" came during a meeting of the group when a paper knife stuck into a French-German dictionary happened to point to 'dada', a French word for 'hobbyhorse'.
As I referred, 'Dadaism' is a starting point for the movement the laid the foundation for 'Surrealism'. When we appreciate the paintings of surrealism we usually look it in admiration. Many people knows that René Magritte is the beginning of surrealism as he is named "Father of surrealism". However, His status is faltering since Hieronymus Bosch. Some experts of arts says that Hieronymus Bosch realize the root of surrealism as drawing heaven and hell. The other says that he is just an artist of altar paintings. About this debate, I think Hieronymus Bosch is a holy picture painter. I have three reasons why I think so. Before I explain my supports, I would like to introduce who Hieronymus Bosch is.
He was a Dutch artist who lived somewhat later than Memling. His work was influenced by the Flemish school of painting. He is a sincere Christian and every time that new king had ascended the throne he was suggested to draw altarpieces so that he was famous for his paintings. In other his paintings, he depicted heaven and hell, Adam and Eve, and other utopian organisms. Still, his paintings has variety of opinions concerning the category. Once again I say, I would like to categorize him as an altarpiece painter.
First, His paintings were mostly consisted with characters in Bible. He draws ADAM and EVE. We can confirm through one of his paintings : left panel of Garden of Earthly Delights. The left panel depicts a scene from the paradise of the Garden of Eden commonly interpreted as the moment when God presents Eve to Adam. The painting shows Adam waking from a deep sleep to find God holding Eve by her wrist and giving the sign of his blessing to their union. God is younger-looking than on the outer panels, blue-eyed and with golden curls. His youthful appearance may be a device by the artist to illustrate the concept of Christ as the incarnation of the Word of God. God's right hand is raised in blessing, while he holds Eve's wrist with his left.
In addition to this, he enjoyed to draw the fool. It could be construed as people who need to redeem. For example, Cutting the Stone, also called The Extraction of the Stone of Madness or The Cure of Folly. It is possible that the flower hints that the doctor is a charlatan as does the funnel hat. The woman balancing a book on her head is thought by Skemer to be a satire of the Flemish custom of wearing amulets made out of books and scripture, a pictogram for the word phylactery.[2] Otherwise, she is thought to depict folly. Foucault, in his History of Madness, says "Bosch's famous doctor is far more insane than the patient he is attempting to cure, and his false knowledge does nothing more than reveal the worst excesses of a madness immediately apparent to all but himself." The painting shows us that humans are organisms needed to redeem. As I said, surrealism is a way to depict a painter’s own thoughts that nobody can't recollect unconsciously. However, Hieronymus Bosch drawn the characters from Bible that every christian even non-christian know.
Second, He usually conveyed contents of Bible through his paintings. Two pictures would explain you why I think : Last judgement and The Temptation of St. Anthony.
Last judgement is the central panel of Bosch triptych, Bruges. The central painting depicts a Last Judgement, basing on John's Book of Revelation. Above is Christ as a judge, surrounded by Mary, St. John the Evangelist and the apostles. The celestial zone, painted in a bright blue, contrasts with the rest of the panel, which is occupied by a dark brownish punishment of the Damned, while the Blessed occupy only a small portion. The punishments come from monstrous creatures of Hell: the damned are burned, speared, impaled, hung from butcher hooks, forced to eat impure food (the Gluttonous), or subjects to cogs of bizarre machines. This scene has strong similarities with the right panel in Bosch's Garden at the Museo del Prado.
Also, Temptation of St. Anthony is that St. Anthony the Abbot is portrayed in meditation, in a sunny landscape near the trunk of a dry tree. St. Anthony is a recurrent figure in Bosch's work, with up to 15 paintings of this subject, all inspired by legends told in the Golden Legend and in his Life by Athanasius of Alexandria. He is represented in a setting of solitude and temptation that the saint experienced over twenty years. Although this picture is significantly different from other works by Bosch of St. Anthony, such as the triptych painting of the same name, customary features of the abbot include the his dark brown habit with the Greek letter "tau" and pig by his side. In contrast to the earlier paintings with St. Anthony, this version of The Temptation of St. Anthony finds the abbot calmer from his meditative spirit. His surroundings are peaceful and evoke a sense of calm. The pig lies next to him like a pet. Once demons, the creatures of temptation are now more like goblins and do not disturb the peaceful feeling of the painting.
He is an christian and usually a painter express his belief in his painting. Usually a painter express his ideas in his paintings. Hieronymus Bosch, also, depicted his belief as a christian.
Third, He used Flandre style when he drawn. He didn't want to reveal the fact that human made. He selected Flandre style to conceal humane aspects from his paintings so that he hardly signed on the paintings. In fact, he signed only seven of his paintings, and there is uncertainty whether all the paintings once ascribed to him were actually from his hand. It is known that from the early sixteenth century onwards numerous copies and variations of his paintings began to circulate. In addition, his style was highly influential, and was widely imitated by his numerous followers. Over the years, scholars have attributed to him fewer and fewer of the works once thought to be his, and today only 25 are definitively attributed to him.
In conclusion, Hiernoymus Bosch is an altar painters since his paintings are related with Bible and he wanted to hide humane traces. We have to remember that there is a difference to understand the meaning the painter intends, between surrealism and holy pictures.
