Blockx 1972
“Het godsdienstig leven ten tijde van Hiëronymus Bosch” (K. Blockx) 1972
[in: R.-H. Marijnissen et al., Hiëronymus Bosch, Arcade, Brussels, 1974 (2) (first edition: 1972), pp. 113-130]
[Also mentioned in Gibson 1983: 143 (G52)]
Blockx rejects the theories suggesting that Bosch was a heretic (Fraenger, Reuterswärd, Wertheim-Aymès): those theories are not based on reliable sources, whereas it is a historical fact that Bosch was a member of the orthodox Confraternity of Our Lady. Bosch had close contacts with this confraternity and will also have been in touch with the religious life of his times. There were quite some excesses in this religious life, which led to two reactions in the Netherlands: on the one hand satirical literature (to which the art of Bosch is clearly related), on the other hand a movement of religious revival: the Modern Devotion.
Blockx is very doubtful about Bosch’s being strongly influenced by the Modern Devotion although it is not difficult to demonstrate that some of its ideas are also represented in the art of Bosch. Anyhow, Bosch was very much a product of his age: he clearly gave expression to many (not all) religious phenomena from his social environment.
[explicit]
