Author Description

In this visually stunning and much anticipated book, acclaimed art historian Joseph Leo Koerner casts the art of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel in a completely new light, revealing how the painting of everyday life was born from what seems its opposite: depictions of a foe hellbent on destroying us. Probing deeply the visual cunning of these Renaissance masters, Koerner uncovers art history's unexplored underside: the visual image as enemy. An absorbing study of the dark paradoxes of human creativity, Bosch and Bruegel is also a timely account of how hatred can be converted into tolerance through art. Koerner guides readers through all the major paintings, drawings, and prints of these two towering artists, including Bosch's elusive Garden of Earthly Delights, which forms the mesmerizing center of the historical tour de force. Elegantly written and abundantly illustrated the book is based on Koerner's A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, a series given annually at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. -- Inside jacket flap.