Bosch’s Visionary Renaissance

Bosch and the Other Renaissance is a seminal monograph dedicated to the celebrated Flemish artist, released in 2022 edited by Bernard Aikema and Fernando Checa Cremades for 24 ORE Cultura. The volume was produced on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name hosted at the Palazzo Reale in Milan from November 2022 to December 2023.

Bosch is known worldwide for his dreamlike imagery, populated with monstrous creatures and fantastic scenes. The merit of this publication is to broaden the perspective, placing the artist within a context – 16th-century southern Europe – dominated by themes and styles typical of Renaissance classicism, far removed from those of the Flemish painter. The book – and the contemporary exhibition – shed new and surprising light on an alternative, dreamlike and irrational “Renaissance,” which had always remained in the shadows compared to the classical Renaissance embodied by figures such as Raphael, Titian and Parmigianino, but which actually had a strong artistic and cultural impact in various parts of Europe.

This book illustrates the success and influence of Bosch’s art in Italy and Spain in the period between the late 16th and early 17th centuries and does so through numerous high-profile historical and scientific contributions and an iconographic apparatus that stands out for the richness and quality of the images it contains. Some 300 illustrations, including numerous enlargements and details that make it possible to appreciate even the smallest details that are not normally detectable. This added value is particularly significant in the case of an artist like Bosch, whose works are populated by a wide variety of surreal characters, hybrid beings and fantastic objects, the product of his vivid imagination.

The series Great Books of Art and international co-editions

This prestigious volume, translated into English by Abrams Publishing House, is the latest release in the historic series Great Books on Art., inaugurated in 1995 with the volume dedicated to Giotto by Francesca Flores D’Arcais, circulated in 20,000 copies and translated into four languages, cited by “Time” magazine as one of the most important art books of the year. A volume that launched a series of dozens of monographs and anthologies, which continue to be the subject of twinned co-editions with prestigious foreign publishers.

The series continued with numerous publications dedicated to the great masters of art history signed by some of the leading specialists on the subject, including Leonardo by Pietro C. Marani, Cimabue by Luciano Bellosi, Titian by Augusto Gentili, Giorgione by Enrico Maria dal Pozzolo, Beato Angelico by Timothy Verdon, and Paolo Uccello by Mauro Minardi to name but a few. The title dedicated to Leonardo was reissued in 2019 in a completely updated version by Pietro Marani on the occasion of the five-hundredth anniversary of the artist’s death, winning an important co-publication with the American publisher Abrams, in a print run of 5,000 copies intended for international distribution.

All publications in the series are distinguished by their value: large-format volumes of high graphic and paperback quality, rich in the highest level of scholarly content and important iconographic apparatus. Thanks to the work of the Foreign Rights team of the publishing division of 24 ORE Cultura Editore, these great art histories reach an international audience through co-editions with leading foreign publishers.