KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City has learned that a 16th century oil-wood panel the museum owns was painted by the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch.
The work, The Temptation of St. Anthony, was previously attributed to the artist’s workshop. The piece is on loan to the Het Noordbrabents Museum in Den Bosch, The Netherlands, which is Bosch’s hometown, for an exhibition opening Feb. 13. The show in Holland marks 500 years since Bosch’s death in 1516.
The attribution of the work was made by the Bosch Research and Conservation Project, which sent a team to Kansas City to study the painting and concluded that it could “be ascribed to Bosch with confidence.”
There are only about 25 paintings – including four others in the U.S. – in existence that are known to be by Bosch, including The Garden of Earthly Delights. His style is known for elaborate, fantastical, colorful landscapes filled with exotic creatures and references to Biblical stories.
According to the Nelson-Atkins, investigators were able to detect Bosch’s typical technique of sketching an underdrawing over the ground layer of his oak panels using a coarse brush with thin paint. Bosch also often changed his designs, and a change in the shape of the jug in the St. Anthony panel was apparent.
The work dates from 1500 to 1510 and was last on view at the Nelson-Atkins in 2003. Because of its inclusion in the show in Holland this year and other pending invitations, it’s not known when it will be shown in Kansas City next. It’s the Nelson-Atkins’ sole Bosch, but the museum is opening a show of Dutch art Feb. 24 called “Reflecting Class in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer.”
___
By BETH J. HARPAZ, AP Travel Editor
Copyright 2016 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-02-02-16 1508GMT
