Kemperdick 2016
“Kopien, Varianten, Reminiszenzen, Vervielfältigungen von Bosch” (Stephan Kemperdick) 2016
[in: Stephan Kemperdick et al., Hieronymus Bosch und seine Bildwelt im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert – Für die Gemäldegalerie und das Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin herausgegeben. Exhibition catalogue (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie und Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, 11th November 2016 – 19th February 2017), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz-Michael Imhof Verlag, Berlin-Petersberg, 2016, pp. 7-23]
Kemperdick focuses on the issue of the early, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Bosch copies and imitations. Paintings which were attributed to Bosch in the sixteenth century need not always have been authentic works. Bosch created a new genre in the art of painting whose iconography and depicted figures were unique and idiosyncratic but because of this also easy to imitate. That is why sixteenth-century attributions to Bosch often refer to works ‘in the manner of Bosch’ or to copies. Apparently, these works by followers were widely appreciated. In those days, copies did not have the bad reputation that they often have today. That authentic Bosch paintings enjoyed a special appreciation is not confirmed by the written sources. Copies and variants could readily satisfy the devotees of Bosch’s pictorial world.
[explicit 22nd February 2018]
