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| Saint John of Patmos |
The impact of Bosch’s notebooks, together with carefully selected
paintings, reminds us, among other things, of Bruegel’s own
debt to Bosch as the initiator of key images. A work such as ‘Big
fish eat little fish’ by Bruegel can reveal this debt without
any undue prompting. Bosch was an inventor of imaginary beasts,
and Bruegel did acknowledge this debt. In the first edition of the
engraving by Pieter van der Heyden, for which Bruegel’s drawing
was the preparatory work, Bosch’s name is duly credited, as
‘inventor’. Bosch is also re-emphasised as a ‘spoiler’
painter, upsetting Renaissance perfectibility by the introduction
or insertion of the inconceivable: the two panels, ‘Saint John
on Patmos’ and ‘Saint John the Baptist’ are cleverly
brought together here, to this end. ‘The Pedlar’ is shown
with its proper encasing; three panels as one narrative, not as
isolated works. Bosch soars above the menagerie of monsters that
he created, a painter who could reveal the devils inside the human
mind, when the mediaeval world only saw them outside. Bosch reveals
a grace and balance of ingredients here. We do not need further
reconstructions of hypotheses about Bosch’s mysterious life.
The mystery that has served his public well through the ages will
continue.
Bosch has also served as an inspiration for 20th century painters
– the Australian Arthur Boyd springs to mind, who drew both
from Bosch and from Bruegel. Bosch, perhaps, represents the antithesis
of urbanity and civility, instead he represents the unpredictable,
unfathomable nature against which agrarian society remains pitted.
Witness, pedlar, the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, the massive
slaughtering and the sense of uncontrollability against nature’s
way.
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