Wintermeier 1983
Hieronymus Bosch. Das phantastische Werk (Wolfgang Wintermeier) 1983
[Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim, 1983, 92 pages]
Without offering new points of view this concise introduction wants to familiarize the reader with a number of modern Bosch approaches, treating theories and conclusions with the utmost caution. Wintermeier mentions the views that try to explain Bosch by referring to Surrealism, alchemy, astrology, psychology, psychopathology, esoterism (Fraenger, Wertheim-Aymès) and sociology but with each of them he finds some faults. The author himself seems to be in favour of the poly-interpretability method, but this method is not really worked out.
The ‘original approach’ of this book appears to be treatment of the ‘Luftgeschöpfen, fliegenden Schiffen und dämonischen Heerscharen’ (airborne creatures, flying ships and diabolical armies) [p. 7] which populate Bosch’s most enigmatic and phantastic paintings, but on the whole this is limited to a number of close-up pictures (mostly in black and white). The book contains 54 images (colour and black and white) of mediocre quality. It does not break fresh ground.
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