If we consider that the last appearance of a work of Bosch in the art market took place 135 years ago, the recent discovery of a drawing by the painter, exhibited in the gallery of the antiquarian Nicholas Cortes , deserves a careful look.
drawing, painted to pen, represents one of the hellish scenes in which El Bosco turned his fantasy. A machine built around a monstrous mouth occupies the center of the image. The condemned are tortured as bell clappers and in burning pots. Armed legions parade through a desolate landscape. In the foreground, two figures that could come out of a surrealist work or a science-fiction scene advance between horror and sarcasm.
Detail of Bosch's drawing.
As is the case in plays of great masters whose trail was lost at an indeterminate point in time, have been elaborated hypotheses that trace its path. It has been proposed that the work could have come out of Den Bosch, the hometown of the artist, with Jan I Brueghel the Elder, who would have taken her to Rome. There he was inspired by the drawing for a work commissioned by Cardinal Borromeo. In the inventory of 1626 from the cardinal's collection appears a "Hell" that it could be the work of Bosch.
From that point nothing is known of its future until the drawing went on sale at Sotheby's in 2003, attributed to the circle of Hieronymus Bosch. A Belgian collector recognized the painter's hand, acquired it and went to the Bosch Research and Conservation Project. This institution, based in the Netherlands, holds the highest authority over the painter's work.
In his research workshops it was analyzed both ink and paper. This shows the same composition and characteristics as those used by Bosch, and presents a watermark that appears in other drawings of the painter. Its authenticity was confirmed by expert panel that makes up the institution, led by Jacob Rutgers.
Detail of Bosch's drawing.
Is about one of the most complete drawings of the Den Bosch painter, who used to use this medium to make sketches of the figures that populated his works. For this reason, it has been placed in a initial phase of his trajectory, when he explored the possibilities of the visionary language that distinguishes him. could be placed in the 1490s, before he painted The Garden of Earthly Delights.
Its exceptional state of preservation suggests that the drawing has not been exposed to light, that would have extinguished the ink, if not preserved in an album.
After its authentication, the drawing has been exhibited in Hertogenbosch, the town of the painter, as well as in the sample that celebrated the Prado Museum on the fifth centenary of his death. After passing through the Nicolás Cortés gallery, he will travel to an exhibition in Hungary. It is to be hoped that the work will be acquired by an institution where it can receive the attention of research and the public.
all generation update the work of the masters, and only the observer can assess whether what El Bosco expressed were the visions of his fantasy or if, as he put it Fray Jose de Sigüenza, librarian and adviser to Felipe II: The difference that [...] there is between this man's paintings and those of the others is that the others tried to paint the man as he appears from the outside; he only dared to paint what is inside.