Until 11 September the Prado Museum in Madrid is hosting the first monographic exhibition ever devoted in Spain to Hieronymus Bosch. A show organised to commemorate the fifth centenary of his death, sponsored exclusively by the BBVA Foundation.
Quite an event, because it draws on the Prado Museum's collection, the largest and finest in the world, which includes masterpieces such as El jardín de las delicias, the Carro del Heno and the Adoración de los Magos. To these are added the Camino del Calvario from El Escorial (an artwork that, thanks to the generosity of Patrimonio Nacional, is being moved from the show "El Bosco en El Escorial" to join the great exhibition at the Prado Museum) and San Juan Bautista from the Lázaro Galdiano Foundation, one of the finest fruits of don José Lázaro's collecting zeal. Alongside these artworks, the loans coming from Lisbon, London, Berlin, Vienna, Venice, Rotterdam, Paris, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, among other cities, make this show a unique chance to immerse yourself in the imagination of one of the most fascinating painters in the history of art.
For the occasion a spectacular installation has been created, bringing together more than fifty artworks, among them 21 paintings and 8 original drawings by Bosch, which amount to more than seventy-five per cent of his surviving output, as well as prints, reliefs, miniatures and paintings by other artists that place them in the context in which they were conceived. Given the monographic nature of the show, and the difficulty of pinning down its chronology, his production has been arranged in six thematic sections: The childhood and public life of Christ, The saints, From Paradise to Hell, The Garden of Earthly Delights, The world and man: Deadly Sins and secular artworks, and The Passion of Christ.
The exhibition also includes artworks made in Bosch's studio or by followers after lost originals. Another group of artworks, among them paintings, miniatures, burin engravings by Alart du Hameel, reliefs by Adrien van Wesel and the manuscript of Felipe de Guevara's Comentario de la pintura, will help us better understand the setting in which Bosch's paintings came about, or the personality of some of his patrons such as Engelbert II of Nassau. What's more, the Prado Museum, a pioneer in the technical study of Bosch's painting, has analysed his artworks again using the latest advances.
Another novelty is that visitors to this exhibition, Bosch. The 5th Centenary Exhibition, will be able to see part of the results of that study in the infrared reflectography and the X-ray of El jardín de las delicias, which make it possible to verify the creative process behind the artwork, with the surprising changes the artist made from the moment he began the underdrawing until he finished the painted surface. The results of this research on Bosch's work at the Prado, led by Pilar Silva, have been included in the catalogue accompanying the show, with contributions from other leading Bosch specialists such as Eric de Bruyn, Paul Vandenbroeck, Larry Silver, Reindert Falkenburg and Fernando Checa.
The Prado Museum has also organised a varied programme of activities, among which we can highlight the production of a documentary directed by José Luis López-Linares, the publication of a comic by the cartoonist Max, and, from 4 July, the opening in Room C of an audiovisual space entitled Jardín Infinito, created especially by the artist Álvaro Perdices and the filmmaker Andrés Sanz. In addition, the 5th Prado Chair, to be held by Reindert Falkenburg, will be devoted to Bosch and his ideal disciple, Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
For this exceptional exhibition the Prado Museum has extended its opening hours by two extra hours from Friday to Sunday.
Bosch. The 5th Centenary Exhibition
Museo Nacional del Prado
Opening hours
Monday to Thursday from 10.00 to 20.00 h.
Friday and Saturday from 10.00 to 22.00 h.
Sunday and public holidays from 10.00 to 21.00 h.
More information at www.museodelprado.es
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