Beyond Bosch?

It is nearly impossible to go “beyond Bosch.” Master of the outlandish and premier portraitist of the hellish beyond, Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516) challenged imitators, yet imitators were legion, as the exhibition on display at the Harvard Art Museums shows. Joseph Leo Koerner, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard, will introduce the art of this most enigmatic of painters, consider its amazing afterlife, especially in the medium of print, and explore how the achievements of the artist transcended those of his predecessors. Sketching the path from Bosch to Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525–1569), Koerner will discover the birth of a painting of everyday life from the spirit of enmity.

This lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Beyond Bosch: The Afterlife of a Renaissance Master in Print, on view at the Harvard Art Museums from January 23 to May 8, 2016.

Free admission

The lecture will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Please enter the museums via the entrance on Broadway. Following the lecture, the Beyond Bosch exhibition will remain open until 8pm.

Complimentary parking available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.

Support for the lecture is provided by the Robert and Margaret Rothschild Lecture Fund at the Harvard Art Museums.

Beyond Bosch: The Afterlife of a Renaissance Master in Print has been organized by the Saint Louis Art Museum. It was curated by Marisa Bass, assistant professor of art history and archaeology at Washington University in Saint Louis, and Elizabeth Wyckoff, curator of prints, drawings, and photographs at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The Harvard Art Museums presentation of Beyond Bosch was curated by Danielle Carrabino, associate research curator in European and American art, and has been made possible in part by support from the Rabb Family Exhibitions Fund and an anonymous gift in memory of Melvin R. Seiden.