Art Focus Lectures | Visionary Art from Bosch to Blake

Artists such as Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Breughel, Henry Fuseli, and William Blake have greatly expanded our visionary imagination by probing unusual psychological undercurrents. Strange or unexpected images occur in their art, whether by juxtaposing comparing the real with the unreal or creating hybrid beings or by possibly examining images rising from their own subconscious or unconscious minds long before psychology was understood as a scientific discipline. Some imagery is apocalyptic and religious, others consider the monstrous or fearful aspects of our imaginary life on the margins of what was known or vaguely understood in their time. This lecture probes their imagery as their visions continue to haunt art history.

Patrick Hunt, PhD, is an archaeologist and art historian teaching at Stanford University since 1993. Hunt is a frequent featured scholar on documentaries including National Geographic, NOVA, and PBS. His seventeen published books to date include Myth and Art in Ekphrasis, Caravaggio, Renaissance Visions: Myth and Art, and the best-selling Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History.