Hirsch 1954
Hieronymus Bosch – De Tuin der Lusten (Wolfgang Hirsch) 1954
[Van Ditmar, Amsterdam-Antwerp, 1954, 44 pages. Dutch translation of: Wolfgang Hirsch, Hieronymus Bosch – The Garden of Delights, Longmans Green, London, 1954]
[Also mentioned in Gibson 1983: 90-91 (E106)]
This thin but large-sized book on Bosch’s Garden of Delights triptych has four short chapters. A very brief introduction to Bosch’s life (chapter I) is followed by a long quotation from Friedländer 1941 offering a general sketch of the art of Bosch (chapter II). Chapter III tells some things about Bosch’s influence and fame in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Chapter IV confronts the reader with the view of four Bosch authors on the Garden triptych. In the case of De Tolnay and Von Baldass we get long literal quotations (from Tolnay 1937 and Baldass 1943), whereas Bax [1949] and Fraenger [1947, 1950] are extensively summarized.
Hirsch’s own point of view is not really represented in this monograph. In the afterword we read:
'The choice offered above comprises very diverging explanations of Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Delights’. A uniform, generally accepted explanation remains impossible as long as the major sources, which were important for the painter himself, are inaccessible or no longer available. The mutually contradictory explanations mirror the problems regarding the art of Bosch which art history still has to solve.' [p. 44, translated from the Dutch]
Thus, Hirsch seems to be an early representative of the ‘non-interpretability trend’ that partially dominated the exegesis of Bosch, in particular between 1970 and 1980. Nevertheless, the first chapter (written by Hirsch) also notes:
'The character of the preserved works is largely religious or moralizing. In fact, the illustrated teachings regarding the reprehensible character or the despicability of sin were of major importance for Bosch’s choice of motifs. The ideas which can be derived from his works make a medieval impression, in spite of the originality of the artistic vision and style.' [p. 5, translated from the Dutch]
A text on the protective cover informs us that this book reproduces (sixteen) colour illustrations of Bosch’s Garden for the first time.
[explicit October 15, 2023]
