Myths and Possibilities: Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder
This lecture delves into the fertile borderlands between reality and imagination in European art. Focusing on the period that bridges the late Middle Ages and the dawn of the Early Modern era, we will consider how artists used visual invention to explore the unknown, the wondrous, and the impossible.
At the center of our discussion stand Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder — painters whose fantastical landscapes, hybrid creatures, and teeming moral allegories continue to puzzle and fascinate viewers today. Their works conjure dreamlike realms filled with spiritual anxieties, earthly pleasures, and surreal visions that defy logical explanation. Yet these images did not arise in isolation. They are deeply rooted in medieval visual culture, from illuminated manuscripts and marginalia to theatre, folklore, and religious storytelling traditions that blurred the lines between the sacred and the strange.
Join us as we trace how these traditions shaped the visual culture of the time.
Speaker Bio:
Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff read Social Psychology at the University of Amsterdam before returning to university to do an MA in Netherlandish Art at the Courtauld in London. Organizing and presenting live, online, and recorded cultural events for her own organisation Art Historical London, she also partners with other interesting platforms across the globe. She is passionate about educational causes and supports a number in her free time. Always on the move Mariska splits her time between Amsterdam and London.
Curated & Hosted by:
Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
