sured to annul his marriage. He eventually
agreed to a divorce on the grounds of his
own impotence, but not before spreading
tales that the pope wanted Lucrezia for his
own mistress. A faction opposed to the
Borgia family took up the slander, also
spreading the rumor that Alexander VI as
well as Cesare Borgia, Lucrezia’s brother,
were having incestuous relations with her.
Thepopearrangedasecondmarriagefor
Lucrezia with Alfonso of Aragon, a mem-
ber of the dynasty that ruled the city of
Naples. Out of jealousy or political ambi-
tion, Cesare Borgia ordered his henchmen
to attack Alfonso in Rome and then
strangle him in his bed. Lucrezia was then
betrothed to Alfonso d’Este, the prince of
Ferrara. As the Duchess of Ferrara, she
presided at a renowned Renaissance court
of artists and poets, and was praised by
those who knew her as a gracious and in-
telligent woman. The political turmoil sur-
rounding the Borgia family sullied the
reputation of Lucrezia Borgia, who would
go down in history as an ambitious, con-
niving, and evil woman. Modern histori-
ans question many of the misdeeds attrib-
uted to her, however, and believe her worst
attribute was to have passively served her
brother and father as a useful political
pawn.
Bosch, Hieronymus ...........................
(1450–1516)
A Dutch painter known for his densely
crowded canvases and striking imagery
that reflects an intensely religious outlook
and a fascination with sin, weakness, and
corruption. Born as Jeroen van Aeken, the
son of Anthonius van Aeken, he took the
surname Bosch from the town of ’s-
Hertogenbosch, the place of his birth. The
son and brother of skilled painters, he
lived his entire life in this town, which
then belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy.
His first commission, undertaken with his
father and two brothers, was an altarpiece,
offered by the Brotherhood of Our Lady
to the local cathedral.
The Flemish school of painting to
which Bosch belonged was known for re-
alistic depictions of everyday life; it in-
cluded such masters as Pieter Brueghel,
who was a devoted student of Bosch paint-
ings. Few details are known about the pri-
vate life of Bosch, other than that he was a
member of the strictly orthodox Brother-
hood of Our Lady, a group that venerated
the Virgin Mary. He lived at a time of
change, when the familiar religious mores
and artistic styles of the Middle Ages were
being transformed into the humanism and
experimentation of the Renaissance. His
work can be seen as a morbidly pessimis-
tic view of this changing world and a pre-
diction that the new, irreligious age was
condemning Christian believers to hell.
Bosch’s fame earned him many com-
missions from nobility and royalty. His
successful workshop produced paintings,
altarpieces, triptychs (three-paneled
pictures), and smaller works undertaken
for local art patrons. For the Cathedral of
St. Johns, in his hometown, he was
awarded many commissions to design al-
tarpieces, garments, and stained glass,
none of which have survived to modern
times. His paintings are Christian allego-
ries, many on the theme of temptation and
damnation, with the most famous example
beingThe Garden of Earthly Delights. This
vivid ensemble of strange forms, monsters,
devils, mythological figures, and grotesques
includes more than one thousand figures.
Its three panels are theGarden of Edenon
the left,Hellon the right, and in the cen-
terThe Garden of Earthly Delights, which
shows an allegorical scene of man’s temp-
tation and downfall.The Garden of EarthlyBosch, Hieronymus