Biographical information about the 15th Century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch is sparse. However, the relative silence of the records at least has the virtue of encouraging us to concentrate on his art. Most striking and most famous are Bosch's depictions of hell; demonic monsters inflicting all manner of tortures and torments on those consigned there by the doctrines of the mediaeval church. Besides conjuring up the demons, Bosch invents some interesting machines to assist them in their work. The basic vision of Hell and its torments may be influenced by Dante and other mediaeval writers, but so far as we know the artistic vision was wholly original.
Although in tune with the prevailing doctrine of the church, it may be that Bosch's graphic detail proved too much for the potential clientele of his day, for the paintings by which we know him best were relatively few. They were from what is believed to have been his middle period, though none of his work is dated. Before and afterwards he worked on more conventional subjects such as the Creation, Christ before Pilate, Christ's Passion, and depictions of well-loved saints. However, conventional as at first sight many of those paintings might be, still the devils creep in. Also pervasive is evidence of what we might take to be Bosch's own belief; that the numbers carried off to hell will be far greater than those raised to heaven.
Lest we might be at risk of missing the demon lurking in a picture of St John the Evangelist at Patmos, the malign significance of owls and toads seen in other biblical scenes, or the scandalously incongruous goings-on in the background of the Marriage Feast at Cana, Walter Bosing in his valuable contribution to the splendid Taschen art series is particularly helpful. More than half of the 96 pages in this book carry full-color reproductions of Bosch's paintings, and many text pages are adorned with marginal sketches and drawings. Even so, in at least one instance a feature described by Bosing has largely been cropped from the picture reproduced. That is unfortunate, but the wealth of description and illustration should be sufficient for all but those who wish to make a specialist study of Bosch's work, and for more they will probably have to make a tour of the many European and other galleries that hold the paintings.