Hieronymus Bosch - The Ultimate Vision of Hell

Since the Noordbrabants Museum exhibition opened on February 13th 2016, there has been an explosion of articles about Hieronymus Bosch. To list them all here would not serve much purpose, but I select those that have something new to offer in this category.  A recent article from the BBC by  Alastair Sooke on February 19th 2016 I found worth passing on here:

BBC - The ultimate vision of hell

A new exhibition celebrates the work of Hieronymus Bosch, the painter known for his terrifying images of demons and monsters – but has he been misunderstood? Alastair Sooke looks back.

To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of the painter Hieronymus Bosch, the Noordbrabants Museum in his native city of Den Bosch in the Netherlands has organised an extensive exhibition of his work.
It is a spectacular show, featuring 17 of his 24 surviving paintings, as well as six more pictures produced within his workshop. In addition, the exhibition, which has taken nine years to come to fruition, contains 19 of Bosch’s 20 extant drawings.
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One thing the brilliant Noordbrabants Museum exhibition does not examine, however, is Bosch’s influence upon subsequent Western art and culture. In his own day, Bosch, who married into wealth, was a successful and popular artist who moved within the upper echelons of society. He counted noblemen such as Philip the Fair, Duke of Burgundy, among his patrons, and inspired countless imitators during the 16th Century. Surprisingly, though, given his fame today, his idiosyncratic imagery fell out of favour in the decades following his death. Gradually Bosch’s art started to look old-fashioned. The only European country where he was not forgotten was Spain. In 1593, King Philip II transferred The Garden of Earthly Delights to the monastery, mausoleum and palace he had founded at San Lorenzo de El Escorial.