A young boy secretly observes an horrific scene: people being brought to the gallows by the henchmen of the Spanish Inquisition, cheered on by a mob of voracious onlookers. The young boy preserves the impression in a sketch that, years later, will form the basis of a world-famous painting: Magpie on the Gallows. At a still early age, the Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel aroused the suspicion and attention of the authorities, and was thrown into jail for paintings deemed to have ridiculed the Church. However, his genius was also recognised: Cardinal Granvelle, the influential governor appointed by Philip II of Spain, allows the young Bruegel to be educated as a painter in Pieter Coecke's atelier in Antwerp. From that time onwards, Pieter's life is in the hands of the cruel Church luminary, who remains in the background pulling all of the strings. A well-researched novel that transports the reader, with extraordinary vividness, into the midst of Pieter Bruegel's life and work and into the most turbulent and horrible chapter in Dutch history. A book that merits comparison with de Coster's Legends of Ulenspiegel.

The young Jeroen van Aken – who, as a master, would dub himself Hieronymus Bosch – grew up in an era characterised by its fear of witches and devils and in which the fate of those suspected by the Church was to be burnt at the stake. He was connected by a profound – and, in the eyes of society, indecent – love to his older Sister Herberta, who introduced him to the subtleties and techniques of painting. Bosch befriended alchemists, philosophers and freethinkers, through whom he learned of the existence of 'Ecco Homo', the secret brotherhood of the free spirit, which would later provide the inspiration for his masterpiece, ›The Garden of Earthly Delight‹. However, the underlying ridicule of the Church and the authorities evident in his work proved to be a thorn in the side for many, and for one person in particular: the inquisitor and fanatic Jakob Sprenger, the »devil in a monk's habit«. Aleyt van der Meervenne, Bosch's cultured and powerful wife, was forced to bring all of her influence to bear to protect his life. Based on little-known facts and a wealth of supposition, John Vermeulen brings this extraordinary artist back to life. His intention is not to solve the riddles presented by the artist's oeuvre, but to let himself be guided by its influence on his imagination. The result is a compact, riveting and sensuous novel with refined dialogue and scene-changes worthy of a film – and, of course, the wonderful art descriptions that vividly recreate Bosch's work before the reader's eyes.