Hoffman 2019a
“Bruegel en Bosch (2)” (Ed Hoffman) 2019
[in: Bossche Kringen, vol. 6, nr. 1 (January 2019), pp. 38-42]
Hoffman compares the Temptations of St Anthony engraving, executed by Pieter van der Heyden after a design of Bruegel (1556) with Bosch’s Lisbon Temptations of St Anthony triptych. At first sight, the engraving is filled with Bosch inventions, but after a closer inspection they all appear to be Bruegelian details, although often related to Bosch’s imagery. But there is also a difference: with Bosch the saint is literally and figuratively the centre of a deeply religious triptych, whereas the engraving is a commercial product.
The same is true for the Dulle Griet (Mad Meg) panel (Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh), Bruegel’s most Boschian painting. Bosch’s paintings are deeply religious and are meant to decorate an altar or to support intimate private devotion, but Bruegel secularizes (as a result of the changing religious climate).
[explicit 4th July 2019]
