Hieronymus Bosch brought to life in Dutch hometown 500 years after painter's death
3D reproductions of some of the extraordinary creatures in his paintings light up the medieval streets of Den Bosch, and visitors can tour the cathedral gargoyles that may have been a source of inspiration for the artist, writes Peter Neville-Hadley
Once upon a time, in a country far, far away - about 500 years ago, in the small Dutch market town of 's-Hertogenbosch, to be precise - there lived a painter who had an outlandish imagination.
Like other European artists of his time, he mainly painted scenes from the Bible, the lives of the Christian saints, and heaven and hell. But his pictures were unlike anything seen before. Every corner of them teemed with half-human monsters, giant birds, enormous fruit and other bizarre images. The devil was in the details, and all around his holy subjects the details were often devils.
The painter's skill and creativity in showing both the natural and the supernatural worlds attracted commissions from European royalty, and although he was but a humble craftsman, this led to his elevation in society. He married a woman from a well-to-do family and began to sign his paintings with a name that told buyers where to find his studio: Jheronimus Bosch.
This year his picturesque hometown, also known as Den Bosch, an hour's train ride south of Amsterdam, is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the death of its most famous son, widely known today as Hieronymus Bosch. His house still stands on the north side of the triangular marketplace, one of more than 500 mostly medieval listed buildings lining a labyrinth of narrow streets and the network of canals that lace what is one of the Netherlands' prettiest and best-preserved historic cities.
Paintings by Bosch's contemporaries on display at the Noordbrabants Museum show how little the older parts of the city have changed. Some of it appears in the background of Bosch's own works, as do the skylines of other medieval towns still identifiable in the distance from atop the city's substantial walls.