16 April 2022

Hieronymus Bosch in the NYTBR

Twice during the past couple-three weeks in the New York times book review, writers have mentioned Hieronymus Bosch.

"'The Doloriad' evokes Beckett's plays, or, in its static depiction of misery, Hieronymus Bosch's paintings. But 'Endgame' and 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' are funny and don't take five hours to get through. Ultimately this book, for all its ambition, isn't for me. But, who knows, it just might be what your rotten little heart deserves." -- J. Robert Lennon, in a review entitled "Wicked by design" of The Doloriad, by Missouri Williams, MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York times book review, March 27, 2022, p. 10.

"One of my treasures is a book received long ago from fellow students as a present for my Ph. D. It is a beautifully illustrated volume about Hieronymus Bosch, the medieval painter. Many people find his art disturbing, but I was born in the city where he lived and worked, and grew up with his imaginative visions of heaven and hell. I like his attention to facial expressions while depicting humanity's sins and follies. There are also tons of animals in his paintings mixed with trees, fruits and figures that are half human, half animal. Bosch was the world's first surrealist." -- Frans de Waal, "By the book," New York times book review, April 3, 2022, p. 6.

I wonder if Frans de Waal's "beautifully illustrated volume" is the 1966 monograph on Bosch by Charles de Tolnay that has had a place of honor on my shelves for more than 50 years. I am much more taken by de Waal's image of Bosch than Lennon's "static depiction of misery." Flying to Madrid to see Bosch's paintings may take more than five hours but it is well worth the trip.

11 April 2022

restraint is relative

When you see a lovely rowhouse like this one in the 1300 block on North Dearborn Street in Chicago, you think about the extravagant window surrounds and variations in material colors. "Restraint" is not the first word that comes to mind, especially given the other houses nearby.

And then your mind drifts to those art nouveau houses you saw in Brussels:


Or to the multicolor exteriors of art nouveau houses in Turin:

Why, that Chicago house is almost classical in its quiet eclecticism.

03 April 2022

separated at birth: basalt churches

Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church
Baltimore, Maryland
(Thomas Dixon, archt., completed 1872)
Gothic Revival

Santa Maria
Randazzo, Sicily, Italy
(opened 1214, belltower completed in 1863)
Gothic / Gothic Revival