Bosch's signature from the triptych Adoration of the Magi. Only a few of the surviving paintings by him are signed.
Paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, as well as paintings attributed to him or his school, have been compiled by various organizations. An investigation undertaken by The Bosch Research and Conservation Project of a multitude of Bosch's paintings included dendrochronological research and made an approximate dating of the paintings possible.[1] The findings of this investigation were published in a book in 2016.[2] The book describes the other findings of the investigation as well, such as painting technique, layer structure and pigment analyses.[3]
Bosch's works are generally organized into three periods of his life dealing with the early works (c. 1470–1485), the middle period (c. 1485–1500), and the late period (c. 1500 until his death). According to Stefan Fischer, thirteen of Bosch's surviving paintings were completed in the late period, with seven surviving paintings attributed to his middle period.[4] Bosch's early period is studied in terms of his workshop activity and possibly some of his drawings. There are no surviving paintings attributed before 1485.
Examples of Bosch's work can be found in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, the UK, and the US.[citation needed]
Bosch's authorship is disputed; possibly a copy after a lost Bosch original. Another, wider version of the same painting is kept in Noordbrabants Museum, 's-Hertogenbosch (on loan from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), and yet another is in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.
Described by Friedländer as ‘an especially early work by the master’; later deemed a 16th-century pastiche; more recently thought to be a work dating back to the 1470s from Bosch's immediate circle[5]
The reverse side of the panel has a round double painting (diameter 39 cm) on it: Scenes from the Passion of Christ (outer circle) and The Pelican with Her Young (inner circle).
Outside panel of St. John the Evangelist on Patmos
c. 1490–1495
Oil on wood
diameter 39 cm.
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany
The reverse side of the panel has a round double painting (diameter 39 cm) on it: Scenes from the Passion of Christ (outer circle) and The Pelican with Her Young (inner circle).
There was a dispute as to whether this work was a Bosch autograph or a piece by the workshop until the Bosch Research and Conservation Project concluded it to be autograph based on evidence present in the underdrawing.[6]
Fragment of a lost triptych which also included Allegory of Gluttony and Lust (which is the lower part of the Ship of Fools wing) and Death and the Miser (the other outer wing).
Fragment of a lost triptych which also included Ship of Fools (the Allegory would be the lower part of that outer wing) and Death and the Miser (the other outer wing).
^Luuk Hoogstede, Ron Spronk, Robert G. Erdmann, Rik Klein Gotink, Matthijs Ilsink, Jos Koldeweij, Hanneke Nap, and Daan Veldhuizen, Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman – Technical Studies, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2016.
Matthijs Ilsink, Jos Koldeweij, Ron Spronk, Luuk Hoogstede, Robert G. Erdmann, Rik Klein Gotink, Hanneke Nap, and Daan Veldhuizen. Hieronymus Bosch: Painter and Draughtsman – Catalogue raisonné, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2016.
Luuk Hoogstede, Ron Spronk, Robert G. Erdmann, Rik Klein Gotink, Matthijs Ilsink, Jos Koldeweij, Hanneke Nap, and Daan Veldhuizen, Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman – Technical Studies, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2016.