In Pieter van Huystee's new documentary, "Hieronymus Bosch: Touched by the Devil," there is a bizarre, almost comical disconnect between the artworks assembled for a historic exhibition and the fuss surrounding its preparation. The show, which ran earlier this year at the Noordbrabants Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch, in the southern Netherlands, commemorated the 500th anniversary of this Dutch painter's death.
Much of the film shows prim archivists equipped with the latest technology, poring over Bosch's works to determine their authenticity. His paintings, teeming with demons, creatures worthy of H. G. Wells's "The Island of Doctor Moreau" and surreal amalgams of all sorts, still strike awe. But there are only cursory efforts to interpret their imagery.
Much of the film focuses on determining which works were painted by Bosch himself or by family members who assisted him in his studio, which, after his death in 1516, continued to turn out paintings ascribed to "the workshop of H. Bosch."
For an artist whose visions of heaven, hell and the temptations of the flesh feel startlingly contemporary, it's amazing that so little is known about him. He was born to a family of painters in 's-Hertogenbosch, a placid city referred to by the Dutch as Den Bosch. It's a measure of Bosch's imaginative genius that the imagery in works like "The Garden of Earthly Delights" outstrips in boldness many of the extreme digital fantasies in Hollywood horror films. Reproductions of his paintings have adorned rock album covers, been parodied on "The Simpsons" and printed on silk bodices desig ned by Alexander McQueen.
Video Trailer: 'Hieronymus Bosch: Touched By The Devil'Bosch's paintings are crammed with so much detail that, as the film shows, you have to examine them up close for their secrets to be revealed. In the scenes of archival research, art historians resemble a team of forensic detectives studying the sometimes inconclusive evidence found at a crime scene.
Bosch was not prolific. His authenticated paintings consist of around two dozen panels and triptychs. The film follows the team as its members visit museums around the world and study Bosch's works using X-rays, infrared photography and multispectrum analysis.
There is a subtext of intrigue and competition. Many of the greatest Bosch paintings, including "The Garden of Earthly Delights," are housed in Madrid at the Prado, which refused to lend this masterpiece, regarded as its Mona Lisa, for the exhibition. But another, less famous work, "The Haywain Triptych," is lent, and time is devoted to analyzing its iconography.
In the most dramatic discovery, the team travels to Kansas City, Mo., to examine a small painting at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, "The Temptation of St. Anthony," thought to be a product of the Bosch workshop. To the museum's delight, it is authenticated as an original Bosch. The institution's director, Julián Zugazagoitia, compares the finding to having your child win the Nobel Prize.
More than half of "Touched by the Devil" is devoted to the quest to authenticate Bosch works. The rest is commentary on the paintings themselves, handsomely photographed. But the film shies away from exploring Bosch's place in art history. There are no side-by-side comparisons with the 20th-century Surrealists he influenced. The movie comes alive only when the camera lingers over the actual paintings and allows their power to speak for itself.
"Hieronymus Bosch: Touched by the Devil" is not rated. It is in English, Dutch and Spanish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes.
Hieronymus Bosch: Touched by the Devil
Continue reading the main storySource: Review: Hieronymus Bosch, for Whom the Devil Was Always in the Details
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