Bosch is refreshingly easy to read; it’s accessible without insulting the reader’s intelligence. Though the content is probably nothing groundbreaking for art historians, I, as someone who picked this book up on a whim knowing very little about Hieronymus Bosch, enjoyed it well enough.

There were some points I was a little unsure about, however. Dixon talks about physiognomy and how that relates to depictions of Jesus, but utterly fails to comment on the racism (and antisemitism in particular) inherent in this. She also interprets the presence of a few black people in The Garden of Earthly Delights as “personifying the marriage of opposites,” analysing the figures the same way she’d analysed animals, mythical creatures, plants, and inanimate objects but, notably, not the white people, who were allowed to simply be people.

Another interpretation which I found odd – not problematic, just highlighting a difference between her perspective and mine – was an image Dixon saw as “a disturbing image of poverty overcoming prosperity” which to me seemed to represent the poor overcoming the rich. She also claimed that landlords and money-lenders “serve the community” and referred to the rich as “persons of means” like that one guy who insists “billionaire” is a slur, which I found funny.

Still, I did learn quite a bit from this book. Dixon really made a point of exploring both the Christian and alchemical interpretations of Bosch’s work and showing how the two are not contradictory but, rather, inextricably linked. There were also some interesting notes about the significance of the funnel hat and the symbolism of hay which I hadn’t considered before.

All in all, this book is a decent introduction and overview of Bosch’s life and works. Nothing more, nothing less.