Between Hell and Pradise: Bosch Exhibition in Budapest

The exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, that is open till July 17, this year, showcases the art of the Netherlandish master, Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450 – 1516), who produced one of the most influential and emblematic artistic achievements in European painting.

The museum says the Budapest show, with close to ninety works on view, is not only anticipated to become the most comprehensive exhibition of Bosch’s works in Central Europe ever, but also one of the most significant Bosch exhibitions of the international museum world in the last fifty years.

Bringing to life Bosch’s unique world and conjuring up the spiritual and visual culture of the late Middle Ages, the museum will display almost half of the master’s painted oeuvre,  including ten autograph paintings – among them the Last Judgement triptych (Bruges, Groeningemuseum), the Ship of Fools (Paris, Musée du Louvre), the Adoration of the Magi (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) and the Ecce Homo (Frankfurt, Städel Museum).

Further loans for the large-scale Budapest exhibition from some fifty public and private collections are among others, from The Morgan Library & Museum in New York, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The National Gallery in London, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid.

The exhibition explores eternal human themes rendered by Bosch in an utterly original pictorial language: the choice between virtue and vice, the questions of faith and truth, experiencing unfettered desires and mastering them, as well as the spiritual quality of human existence. In addition to autograph paintings and drawings, visitors can see works that represent the antecedents for the master’s oeuvre, as well as the most characteristic masterpieces from his studio and by his followers.