On Thursday 27 April at 6 pm in the Lanckoroński hall in the Institute of Art History of the Jagiellonian University (ul. Grodzka 53, Kraków) Professor Bernard Aikema will deliver a lecture Jheronimus Bosch and the Renaissance in Europe.
Between November 2022 and March 2023 the exhibition entitled Jheronimus Bosch e un altro Rinascimento attracted huge crowds in Milan, Palazzo Reale. In this show, accompanied by a catalogue and a monumental book publication, we argue that Bosch and “Boschian” imagery are a major example of what may be called an “alternative Renaissance”, which is not based on the revival of classical antiquity and the “discovery” of the individual, but rather on the discovery of new ways of expression, including flights of fantasy and, in general, a pluralistic view of the world as it appears in its various and often contradictory forms. This “alternative Renaissance” manifested itself in various parts of Europe, most strongly in the Mediterranean countries, which explains the early appreciation in Spain and Italy of Bosch as a painter of monsters, firebrands and dreamlike visions. In the lecture, I will further explore this point of view, underscoring some of its main issues and methodological consequences.
Bernard Aikema is Professor of Art History at the University of Verona. His field of expertise is Venetian painting and the graphic arts of the 15th-18th centuries and the diffusion and reception of the Renaissance in Europe. He is considered a leading expert on these topics and their methodological reflection. He has been also curator of a number of major exhibitions with scholarly catalogues in Europe and the United States.
