Tamis 2023
“Family functions: reviewing the Van Aken workshop” (Dorien Tamis) 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. 356-373]
This paper deals with the question of how what we know of workshop organisation of painters in general compares to what is known about the Van Aken family ‘enterprise’. Most scholars agree that Bosch was a member of a family workshop, but we cannot be sure about workshop collaborators from outside the Van Aken family. There were years during Bosch’s active period in which the family could offer six potential collaborators, and in other years four were available. There is no overlap between documents relating to Bosch’s workshop and his paintings, but his extant oeuvre is generally considered the product of a collaborative workshop organisation. Tell-tale signs of studio collaboration are different ‘hands’ and the recurrent use of motifs. Probably, Bosch’s clientele did not object against the participation of assistants, as long as high-quality workmanship was involved.
[explicit May 21, 2024 – Eric De Bruyn]
