The Cure of Folly (workshop or follower) Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)

Description of Hieronymus Bosch’s painting The Extraction of the Stone of Folly

"The Extraction of the Stone of Folly" is one of Bosch’s earliest works that has come down to this day. At a glance, from the overall composition and the title of the painting, the main purpose of the painting - the motif of folly - becomes immediately clear.

In terms of any pictorial attitude, this work is still far from a pictorial understanding of the painting. You can also find a large number of anatomical errors.

Separately, I would like to say that the work is done in monochrome, a little reddish shades, because of which the entire composition looks a little dry. The situation is difficult with the landscape that is in the background, it is rather stingy and poorly designed.

But that’s not the point of this painting. In this case, there is a semantic burden on the viewer in the first place. The work clearly conveys the artist’s idea, which immediately unfolds and catches the eye.

I would like to mention that Bosch would very often encounter such a format in his other works. If we note the format of the tondo, in contrast to other Italian masters, such as Raphael or Botticelli, with whom the circle is an ideal figure, in Bosch’s understanding the circle is the meaning of universality.

The following fact is interesting: when the master from Holland begins to enclose, in a circle, some image, he implies that this case, far from being unique, is an allegory of all people on the planet.

As for the text, which is written at the top and bottom of the circle, it fully describes the situation that is depicted on the canvas. It says that among the dull landscape, nestled 4 people who do not know how they ended up here. The painting is really striking in its conception.