About this item
In this visually stunning and much anticipated book, acclaimed art historian Joseph Koerner casts the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel in a completely new light, revealing how the painting of everyday life was born from what seems its polar opposite: the depiction of an enemy hell-bent on destroying us.Supreme virtuoso of the bizarre, diabolic, and outlandish, Bosch embodies the phantasmagorical force of painting, while Bruegel, through his true-to-life landscapes and frank depictions of peasants, is the artistic avatar of the familiar and ordinary. But despite their differences, the works of these two artists are closely intertwined. Bruegel began his career imitating Bosch's fantasies, and it was Bosch who launched almost the whole repertoire of later genre painting.
About the Author
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised there and in Vienna, Austria, Joseph Leo Koerner was educated at Yale, Cambridge University, and Berkeley. An art historian and filmmaker, he is currently a professor at Harvard University, and has taught at the Courtauld Institute of Art (London) , the University of Frankfurt, Cambridge University and Oxford University. His first art history book, "Caspar David Friedrich and the Subject of Landscape" won the Jan Mitchell Prize. He has also written prize-winning books on Bosch and Bruegel, self-portraiture, and Protestant iconoclasm. He has made films for the BBC.
