Bosch was born around 1450 (the exact date is unknown) in the duchy of Brabant, which was then under the Duke of Burgundy. he followed the family tradition as a painter.

His father, grandfather, three uncles and brother were all painters. The family name was not Bosch but van Aken, and Bosch was baptized as Jerome van Aken. Signing his works years later, he latinized his first name and his surname became a shortened version of his hometown, Hertogenbosch.

When he was about thirty years old, he married Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meervenne, who came from a wealthy family in Hertogenbosch. Bosch lived with his wife in a house on a market square and became a member of the Brotherhood of Our Lady, devoted to the respect of the Virgin Mary. As for Bosch’s personal appearance, only copies of a self-portrait of an elderly man survive. he represents himself as having large intelligent eyes with stern, tight lips. It was once believed that the sharp-nosed hermit helping to support the unconscious Saint Anthony in the left panel of the Saint Anthony triptych was a self-portrait as well.

Bosch lived during unsettled and anxious times. The old medieval order imposed by the Church was cracking under the growth of cities, the power and commerce of capitalism, the rise of national states, demands for religious reform and the beginnings of science. Minds were growing curious, analytical and adventurous. Historians point to this time as the beginning of the modern world.

The age was marked by violence and pessimism. Kings and dukes were murdered, soldiers pillaged and killed, cruelty to the poor and the animals were prevalent. The future seemed dim with visions of demons, darkness and hell. Opposing the current times, Bosch portrayed his message with a visual impact so fierce, it chilled his contemporaries and fascinates us five hundred years later.

The use of symbolism is rampant throughout his works. He worked at a time when symbols constituted a basic visual language. Paintings displayed in public, mostly in churches, were a proclamation for everyone to read. A few examples of symbols used in Bosch’s painting are:

In an analysis done about forty years ago, the Dutch scholar Dirk Bax concluded that Bosch was a moralist with contempt for the lower classes. He had no sympathy for the poor and used bitter symbolism to satirize beggars, monks, nuns, soldiers, peasants, pilgrims, whores, gypsies, vagrants and jesters. He occasionally lashed out an emperors and nobles as well, but rarely against burghers like himself and others of the wealthy middle class. He vented his anger the most on the excess of lust, license, drunkenness, gluttony, folly and stupidity. Some art historians have since interpreted Bosch’s paintings as displaying less pessimism and more understanding of the difficult plight of his fellow human beings.

The Garden of Earthly Delights, his most famous and celebrated work, evokes sensations today that would have been foreign to Bosch. The central panel to us has an air of innocence, the gentle lovemaking, naked young people creating a mood of joy.

To Bosch, with his medieval mind, this world was brimming with symbols of sin. A few examples of this are the water birds, fish, and ripe strawberries that signify lewdness and lust. The left panel represents evil invading the world. The creation of man &#!51; Adam and Eve are represented here. In the right wing we are shown a vision of hell. The flames, demons, and complete horror invade this space giving tangible shape to the fears that haunted humankind throughout the Middle Ages.

Another of Bosch’s panel paintings, Death and the Miser, serves as a warning to anyone who has grabbed at life’s pleasures or is unprepared to die. Demons lurk all around, death puts a leering head around the door. This soldier must fight death without his armor. Above the bed peers yet another demon. The outcome of this story is left to the viewer’s imagination.

In The Ship of Fools, we see that all of humankind is sailing through the seas on a ship that is representative of humanity. Everyone represented here is a fool in Bosch’s eyes; people that eat, drink, flirt, cheat and pursue unattainable objects. Meanwhile the ship drifts aimlessly and never reaches the harbor. The sinister and monstrous things that he brought forth are our hidden forms of self-love, and the ugliness from within.

The subject of religion was common among Bosch’s works. Christ Carrying the Cross is an example of Bosch’s view on religion. A crowd of grotesque faces surround the face of Christ while mocking him. Bosch created a number of paintings dealing with a Christ figure or saint with people and even demons taunting them.

The subject of sin is common in Bosch’s art. Another famous triptych, The Haywain, contains a similar progression to hell. The central panel contains a large wagon load of hay, which the greedy people grasp. Meanwhile, the wagon is being pulled by demons into the right panel, one of Bosch’s earliest depictions of hell.

The way Bosch painted the visual images of hell, sin, and religion still captures our attention today. His paintings have inspired Broadway shows, poetry, music (the Dead Can Dance cover for “Aion” is a tiny portion taken from the Garden of Earthly Delights’ central panel) and maybe even the surrealist art movement. Bosch could visualize these horrific images like no other. Many have tried to copy his style, but very few had succeeded to imitate the unique style. Bosch was a man ahead of his time; the time frame in which he created his masterpieces that these sins, follies and stupidities occurred could very well be our own.