The product of a sensitive reassessment of Hieronymus Bosch – and not a little frustration over the general state of scholarship on the artist – this book by Roger Van Schoute and Monique Verboomen is addressed to the general reader. In a concise, lucid foreword the authors identify some of the problems confronting Bosch studies. There is but a single painting, a Last Judgment of 1504, which can be linked to Bosch through historical sourc es; and this has not been securely identified with any surviving work. No existing work has a watertight attribution, and the numerous copies after the artist make sorting out originals from workshop production immensely difficult. Sources even mention the creation – a market, perhaps – of Boschian images after the artist’s death. Faced with this discouraging situation, Van Schoute and Verboomen resort to tradition, approaching their subject through the lens of iconography – a very untrendy but clear, telling, and possibly even brave strategy. They divide Bosch’s works into broad iconographic categories: moralizing scenes or allegories, scenes of the life of Christ, saints, and Last Judgments. Following a section devoted to the artist’s origins and milieu in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and his biography, the paintings are discussed individually in brief, footnoteless essays that explain the subject and attempt to set themes within the context of the artist’s work and era. The book concludes with sections on the technical investigation of the artist, a critical catalogue of his paintings, and a general bibliography.

Jacob Wisse

Adelphi University