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Faces… These speak volumes, at least if you know what to look for. The faces in the photos were not painted by Hieronymus Bosch but by people who took part in a competition based on the faces (and their expressions) in Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings. What’s remarkable about this is that when the faces of these often small and numerous figures are highlighted, a different form of art suddenly emerges, especially when you see all these faces together.
As I’ve written before, the average person in Bosch’s time, the people of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, was generally unattractive and afflicted by many diseases. Yet you wouldn’t notice that at first glance. Sallow and grey, yes, but not pockmarked or ravaged by the plague.

I do find the diversity interesting, and when I look at these faces, it seems as though the world hasn’t really changed, apart from the influence of religion. What stands out are the different noses, which make me wonder where they’ve come from. Did Jheronimus see them on foreigners, or was he just making them up? (I’m convinced that not every brushstroke was applied with careful thought, even though critics would have us believe otherwise. It’s even highly likely that most of the paintings weren’t created by him alone. Many painters worked on a single painting with several people, including family members and pupils. It’s curious how the work is then attributed to one person, whilst the others are never mentioned. People in those days also took credit for others’ work; unlike today, there were no complaints about plagiarism, and people showed respect for the work of others.

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20-7-2026}