Chasing Hieronymus

Planning and organizing are my favorite. Even though people may say I am messy and impulsive, I love everything if not to be in order then at least to have some system, that is why when I got an opportunity to travel through Europe I decided to create an interesting quest out of it and to find something that will unite all my upcoming trips. I succeeded in this and, ironically, made it absolutely accidentally... In October my friends and I went on a short trip to Brussels: we did not want to see all the touristic sights and were just walking around in the city eating waffles and enjoying the architecture. In our last day I left the hostel earlier due to my never ending energy and adventurous spirit which sometimes is annoying but which also makes me feel alive. So I let my friends sleep well before the long road back and escaped to find out what capital of Europe has to offer me in a lazy Sunday morning. With the map in one hand and coffee in another I was walking down the empty streets heading to the Museum of Arts - not because I love art, but because it is situated close to the train station and, fortunately, I had a coupon for the free entrance. I never was an art lover and, frankly speaking, not that interested in becoming one, so I was just hanging around, touching everything with the sign "do not touch" and observing other visitors what is always exciting thing to do in a public places. All the masterpieces on the walls were trying to shame me of not knowing them and, feeling it, from time to time I stopped by to honor Rembrandt, Abel or Chagall. Suddenly I spotted something familiar. I returned back to the previous hall and saw it - huge triptych outshining everything else in the room - "Temptations of St.Anthony" by H.Bosch. I stuck. I was standing and staring at the painting which recall the history lesson in high school when I first saw it, insane and provoking, in the handbook`s chapter "Renaissance Art" . In a real life painting was even more incredible with all the tiny details, creepy characters and strange energetic coming out of it. The longer you look at the picture, the more you realize that none else but a genius could ever create it... That was a day when I found both my favorite artist and the "red line" of my trips - in February I saw the original of this artwork in Lisbon, in June I am going to see more of Hieronymus Bosch in Berlin, and, who knows, maybe I will be lucky enough to see his art in Washington Museum this August.