Hobill 2023
“The link between Bosch and Bruegel: Pieter Coecke’s workshop as intermediary” (Astrid Hobill) 2023
[in: Jos Koldeweij and Willeke Cornelissen (eds.), Jheronimus Bosch – His Workshop and His Followers – 5th International Jheronimus Bosch Conference, May 11-13, 2023, Jheronimus Bosch Art Center, ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. Jheronimus Bosch Art Center, ’s-Hertogenbosch, 2023, pp. 96-109]
Pieter Bruegel The Elder may have gained access to Boschian imagery and even to some of Bosch’s workshop materials in the workshop of his master Pieter Coecke van Aelst. It is possible that Bruegel had access to some of Bosch’s original paintings through the connections of his master. Furthermore, some of Coecke’s works contain Boschian imagery. Someone in Coecke’s workshop, perhaps not Coecke himself, was skilled in mimicking Bosch’s creatures. After Coecke had left the workshop of Bernart van Orley in Brussels, he began working in the Antwerp studio of Jan Mertens van Dornicke, an elusive artist who belonged to the group of painters known as the Antwerp Mannerists. In tandem with the rise of the Antwerp Mannerists came the proliferation of Boschian pastiches and copies-after-Bosch produced in Antwerp. The potential connection between the Antwerp Mannerists and the artists creating Bosch copies opens the door to an overlap between the Van Dornicke studio and Bosch’s followers. In his own workshop, Coecke may have employed at least one assistant (formerly working for Van Dornicke) who was highly proficient in Boschian imagery.
[explicit April 15, 2024 – Eric De Bruyn]
