Bosch and Bruegel

Joseph Leo Koerner is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the History of Art and Architecture and Senior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. His previous books include The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art, The Reformation of the Image, and Caspar David Friedrich and the Subject of Landscape.

Winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in Art History & Criticism, Association of American Publishers "[An] eloquent and rich exploration ... based on Koerner's A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the series of talks seamlessly form a book of linked essays that discuss individual paintings, with magnifying precisions, while simultaneously advancing a broader theory on art in a Europe emerging from its dark ages... [Koerner's] observations bring Bosch's work into relevance today."--Nina Siegal, New York Times Book Review "A new book by Joseph Koerner is always an event. Here, as usual, he seems to have read everything and to have thought about everything connected with his chosen subject... But it is his ability to look and to find words for what he is looking at that sets him in the very front rank of art historians... A magnificent achievement, with something to arrest and challenge on every one of its 400-plus pages."--Gabriel Josipovici, Times Literary Supplement "Among the many publications about art I acquired or received, the most important were Bosch and Bruegel: From Enemy Painting to Everyday Life, a long-awaited, provocative study of these two key painters by Harvard art historian Joseph Leo Koerner."--Sebastian Smee, Boston Globe "A lucid and rewarding read."--Tracey Warr, Times Higher Education "More gripping than a thriller... A frightening, fascinating study... It is rare, when reading a work of scholarly criticism, to be so gripped as to feel nervous about turning the page. Be warned: there are chapters here more frightening than a thriller because they allow us to see, with Bosch, infinitely multiplying sin... This is a book to read and reread in any moment of doubt about what critical analysis can achieve. Koerner believes that every painting by Bruegel 'can sustain a lifetime of looking.' He has written a passionately attentive book that brings all life to bear on these pictures, and makes one feel that a lifetime of looking would be well spent."--Alexandra Harris, The Guardian "An extremely thoughtful, wide-ranging examination of Hieronymus Bosch (?1450-1516) and Pieter Bruegel (1525-69), who have been considered together almost from their own time, this volume attests to the layers of meaning invested in these artists and to Koerner's erudition."--Choice "At the intellectual heart of this feast of Bosch scholarship lies, without doubt, Koerner's new study, Bosch and Bruegel: from Enemy Painting to Everyday Life. Here scientific analysis and questions of attribution give way to an erudite and deeply engaging exploration of Bosch, Pieter Bruegel (around 1525-69) and rise of 'secular painting' ... [Koerner] has the ability to present familiar works--often pinned in reproduction to the walls of student dorms--in ways that send shivers down the spine."--Bridget Heal, Art Newspaper "Those tempted or even terrified by Bosch's work but elevated, in a quiet, incarnational way by Bruegel's, will now be able to fathom why and how by spending some time with Koerner's Bosch & Bruegel."--Frank Freeman, Commonweal "[A] fascinating and lavishly illustrated tome... In his audacious focus on ordinary life, Bruegel stepped out of Europe's medieval past and into modernity. And this book, by shining a laser on the 50 years during which Bruegel developed genre painting, lets readers peek into the Renaissance origins of their own thought world. Seldom has art history seemed so relevant."--Karen Sue Smith, America "Looking closely at how these two artists drew inspiration from the darker tones of life, namely in the hellish landscapes of the underworld, [Koerner] shows how they managed to bring a more accurate portrayal of peasant life to their art. Readers are compelled to view Bosch, a painter often more known for his depictions of surreal landscapes of hell, as one on par with Pieter Bruegel (1525-90), whose work depicted everyday life. Drawing on decades of research, experience, and an enormous library of illustrations, Koerner takes readers through a carefully guided tour of life in the 16th century."--Library Journal "Rich and illuminating... Koerner is a brilliant reader of pictures, whose observations, grounded in a lifetime of looking, are animated by a nonchalantly fluent grasp of concepts from aesthetics, philosophy and anthropology. His picking apart of 'the intricate machinery' of these paintings is magisterial and intensely enjoyable."--Tim Smith-Laing, Literary Review

• Preface viii Acknowledgments xii Introduction Parallel Worlds Chapter 1 In the Art-Historical Museum 2 Chapter 2 Life Time 11 Chapter 3 World Time 45 Chapter 4 From Bosch to Bruegel 77 Part I Hieronymus Bosch Chapter 5 Enmity 96 Chapter 6 Among the Idols 151 Chapter 7 The Unspeakable Subject 179 Chapter 8 Self-Portraiture 223 Part II Pieter Bruegel the Elder Chapter 9 History 268 Chapter 10 Culture 305 Chapter 11 Nature 331 Notes 365 Index 401 Photography and Copyright Credits 411