Meertens 1962
“Volkskundige elementen in het werk van Jeroen Bosch II” (P.J. Meertens) 1962
[in: Volkskunde, LXIII (1962), pp. 1-16]
[Also mentioned in Gibson 1983: 149 (G83)]
Meertens reviews some recently published books about Bosch. Fraenger looks for a metaphysical meaning behind the physical depiction of sexual life in the central panel of the Garden of Delights, which is said to be typical of the approach of many art historians these last years. Meertens thinks Bax’ book about the Garden (1956) is important as a document about the folkloristic life around 1500, but he believes Bax is wrong when he states that Bosch transported linguistic metaphors to his paintings.
Meertens gives more credit to the work of Wertheim Aymès (1957) who sees Bosch as a Rosicrucian. This work ‘is based too much on unproven presumptions in order to accept its theories without question’, and yet Meertens believes it is a ‘valuable addition to the literature about Bosch, because it shows us in which direction we will have to look for solutions’.
Meertens also says some things about recent novels that have a link with Bosch: F.M. Huebner’s De Tuin der Lusten, Theun de Vries’ Moergrobben and Henry Miller’s Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch.
[explicit]
