Orienti/De Solier 1974
Hieronymus Bosch (Sandra Orienti & René de Solier) 1979
[Crescent Books, New York, 1979, 175 pages (Italian original: Alfieri & Lacroix, Milan, 1974)]
[French translation: Sandra Orienti and René de Solier, Hieronymus Bosch. Gilbert Jeune, Paris, 1974, 175 pages]
[Also mentioned in Gibson 1983: 11 (A49)]
The two authors of this Italian monograph believe that Bosch cannot be interpreted by using a monolithic method: the correct approach is ‘poly-interpretability’, but always staying within the temporal and cultural frame of Bosch’s life.
In this book the Mehrdeutigkeit approach apparently means that, without worrying too much about arguments and evidence, one is allowed to combine everything that views Bosch as an adept at esoteric practices. According to Orienti and De Solier we no longer understand Bosch correctly because we no longer possess this hermetical knowledge. Nevertheless they claim that Bosch was a moralist influenced by orthodox catholicism, heterodox mysticism, occult sciences, magic, kabbalism and especially alchemy. They also believe that Bosch used drugs to draw inspiration from unusual and stimulating dreams.
[explicit]
