1460-1516. Early Netherlandish painter. His
fantastic visions of weird and hellish
creatures, as shown in The Garden of Earthly
Delights about 1505-10 (Prado, Madrid), show
astonishing imagination and a complex
imagery. His religious subjects focused not
on the holy figures but on the mass of
ordinary witnesses, placing the religious
event in a contemporary
Netherlandish context and creating cruel
caricatures of human sinfulness. Bosch is
named from his birthplace, 'sHertogenbosch,
in Brabant (now in Belgium). His work
foreshadowed Surrealism and was probably
inspired by a local religious brotherhood.
However, he was an orthodox Catholic and a
prosperous painter, not a heretic, as was
once believed. After his death, his work was
collected by Philip II of Spain.