Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516) was a painter from Brabant, born Jheronimus van Aken in his grandfather's house in 's-Hertogenbosch, the town from which he took his name and where he spent almost all his life. His grandfather, Jan van Aken, was a painter, as were four of Jan's five sons, and Bosch is generally assumed to have learnt from his father or one of his uncles. Between 1479 and 1481 he married Aleid Goyaerts van den Meervenne, and in 1486–87 he joined the town's Brotherhood of Our Lady, whose accounts record his death; a funeral mass was held for him on 9 August 1516. He left no letters or diaries. His paintings, mostly oil on oak, are filled with fantastic images of religious subjects, and were collected and widely copied in his lifetime. Only about twenty-five are now confidently attributed to him. Philip II of Spain acquired many, which is why the Prado holds The Garden of Earthly Delights. Pieter Bruegel the Elder was his best-known follower. Here: Table of the Seven Deadly Sins.