High quality Bosch
July 6, 2015 6:53 AM Subscribe
Looking for high quality photography of Hieronymus Bosch's artworks that can be downloaded online
The other day while looking at art books I stumbled across an awesome new(ish) title by Taschen called The Complete Hieronymus Bosch which features every artwork positively attributed to the great Hieronymus Bosch. Unfortunately, the book, being $150, is currently out of this poor bastard's budget so, until I can afford it, I'll just have to admire Bosch's works on my computer and / or buy myself a cheaper Bosch artbook to temporarily fill the void until I can afford the aforementioned one which is almost certainly a peerless masterpiece.
One thing I noticed when leafing through the book's pages was that the reproductions were of much higher quality than any of the ones I've seen online (with perhaps the only exception being The Garden of Earthly Delights that can be found on Wikipedia; the one on Wikipedia is just a small step in quality below that of the reproduction featured in the book). So I wasn't very surprised when I read in the book's description that it features brand new photography of recently restored paintings. Well, now that I've seen the stunning reproductions in The Complete Bosch most of the reproductions of Bosch's artworks I come across online look so shoddy. And it sucks oh so much! I did some Googling around trying to find very high-quality, high-res reproductions of Bosch's works but my efforts proved futile. Thus far probably the best I've found are the ones on Wikipedia, and most don't look that great to my eye.
So: anyone know where I can find high-quality, high-res reproductions of Bosch's artworks online to download? They don't necessarily have to be taken from the brand new photography of the recently restored paintings, but it'd be cooler if they were.
Thankies!
The other day while looking at art books I stumbled across an awesome new(ish) title by Taschen called The Complete Hieronymus Bosch which features every artwork positively attributed to the great Hieronymus Bosch. Unfortunately, the book, being $150, is currently out of this poor bastard's budget so, until I can afford it, I'll just have to admire Bosch's works on my computer and / or buy myself a cheaper Bosch artbook to temporarily fill the void until I can afford the aforementioned one which is almost certainly a peerless masterpiece.
One thing I noticed when leafing through the book's pages was that the reproductions were of much higher quality than any of the ones I've seen online (with perhaps the only exception being The Garden of Earthly Delights that can be found on Wikipedia; the one on Wikipedia is just a small step in quality below that of the reproduction featured in the book). So I wasn't very surprised when I read in the book's description that it features brand new photography of recently restored paintings. Well, now that I've seen the stunning reproductions in The Complete Bosch most of the reproductions of Bosch's artworks I come across online look so shoddy. And it sucks oh so much! I did some Googling around trying to find very high-quality, high-res reproductions of Bosch's works but my efforts proved futile. Thus far probably the best I've found are the ones on Wikipedia, and most don't look that great to my eye.
So: anyone know where I can find high-quality, high-res reproductions of Bosch's artworks online to download? They don't necessarily have to be taken from the brand new photography of the recently restored paintings, but it'd be cooler if they were.
Thankies!
WikiArt. This one specifically (The Garden of Earthly Delights) has a higher quality image available on WikiArt than it does on the Prado Museum page. It may be true of the others listed.
posted by Laura in Canada at 7:29 AM on July 6, 2015
posted by Laura in Canada at 7:29 AM on July 6, 2015
Go to images.google.com and click on "Search Tools". Select size "Larger than 4MPs" (MPs are megapixels) or even higher (you can go as high as 70MPs but with fewer results). This will filter the images to larger than what you typically see on Wikipedia or museum sites... while this doesn't guarantee quality, it narrows it down quite a bit.
posted by rada at 7:30 AM on July 6, 2015
posted by rada at 7:30 AM on July 6, 2015
Closer to Van EyckRon Spronk is chief conservator for this link to Van Eyck. He is an expert on Bosch, and working on a Bosch museum in Hertogenbosch. If you follow his work, I am sure you will find some exquisite high resolution images of Bosch's work.
posted by effluvia at 8:20 AM on July 6, 2015
posted by effluvia at 8:20 AM on July 6, 2015
Wikimedia Commons is your friend for this type of thing (despite an increasingly annoying interface).
Category:Google Art Project works by Hieronymus Bosch
Google Art Images are always reasonably hi-res and sometimes very hi-res. Commons operates under the assumption that 'slavish reproductions' of two-dimensional works of art that were made before 1923 cannot have their own copyright, so anyone can use them for anything. This idea apparently does not hold in the UK.
Next browse the sub-categories of Paintings by Hieronymus Bosch and look for moar megabytes as shown below the thumbnails.
You will not be disappointed in this one! (er, unless, upon reading the detail of your post, you've seen it already):
The Garden of Earthly Delights, 222 megabytes (not a direct link)
posted by sylvanshine at 9:09 AM on July 6, 2015
Category:Google Art Project works by Hieronymus Bosch
Google Art Images are always reasonably hi-res and sometimes very hi-res. Commons operates under the assumption that 'slavish reproductions' of two-dimensional works of art that were made before 1923 cannot have their own copyright, so anyone can use them for anything. This idea apparently does not hold in the UK.
Next browse the sub-categories of Paintings by Hieronymus Bosch and look for moar megabytes as shown below the thumbnails.
You will not be disappointed in this one! (er, unless, upon reading the detail of your post, you've seen it already):
The Garden of Earthly Delights, 222 megabytes (not a direct link)
posted by sylvanshine at 9:09 AM on July 6, 2015
(Now that I look through Commons more, I remember that Bosch has never been well-represented on the web in terms of reproduction quality. :-( )
posted by sylvanshine at 9:21 AM on July 6, 2015
posted by sylvanshine at 9:21 AM on July 6, 2015
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posted by MsMolly at 7:24 AM on July 6, 2015