Why did it take over 300 years to solve a compositional problem, and tell such a simple story?
Cranach
A simple story with an obvious climax to be shown. But getting the composition right proves a test even for the Masters.
A much darker view of the Last Judgement raises questions of authorship, commissioning, and even who one of the saints is.
What do Bosch’s many owls signify? Wisdom, night, or something more sinister?
A truly giant saint, in a landscape with sinister and disturbing events taking place.
Strikingly original, its details are becoming sinister and idiosyncratic. We also discover why he signed with an owl, and called himself Bosch.
I have several times written that early western painting, until the late Renaissance, not uncommonly incorporated multiple copies […]
Painting is one of the oldest and most widely-accessible media for narrative. But narrative painting is also one of the least studied.
The earliest landscape paintings – and very many since – have fundamentally been visual records of the world.
