Willy Verginer (Bressanone, 1957) lives and works in Ortisei. He is an artist and sculptor whose practice privileges the materiality of wood, a choice shaped in part by the context in which he grew up and trained: Val Gardena, in South Tyrol, an area traditionally associated with the art of woodcarving. His relationship with this region of the Dolomites emerges not only in the materials he employs, but above all in the themes he chooses to explore. Alpine landscapes, unspoiled nature, flora and fauna become symbols of an ancestral beauty that resists the advance of modernity and technology—a stronghold of shared meanings and collective memory.
From these premises emerges the project The Lost Garden, which places the biblical Eden in dialogue with an idealized Alpine earthly paradise. It is no coincidence that the installation was conceived for the interior of the Church of San Barnaba in Bondo, Trentino. The site-specific work consisted of a series of painted wooden sculptures depicting animals and human figures arranged along the nave and the altar, guiding visitors toward the sacred space while prompting reflections on memory and the present, on the relationship between humans and animals, and on humanity’s responsibility toward the environment.
The sculpture Homage to Hieronymus Bosch belongs to this body of work. It depicts a seated child, one leg raised, offering a piece of fruit to a raven perched on the tip of the child’s foot. As the title suggests, the piece pays tribute to the great Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch and to his complex triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, rich in biblical scenes and symbolic visions. The raven—the first animal mentioned in Genesis, released by Noah after the Flood even before the dove—assumes here a precise narrative role. In this suspended encounter between the child and the raven, Verginer condenses a reflection that speaks both to the past and to our present. The simple, almost instinctive act of offering may be read as an invitation to dialogue between humanity and nature, a gesture of care that seeks to restore a balance that has long been compromised.
The centrality of this gesture is underscored by Verginer through a decisive line of bright green, drawn precisely at the point of contact between the hand holding the fruit and the foot supporting the animal. It is the only painted element of the sculpture, while the rest remains in the clear, natural color of the wood: a symbolic accent that captures the viewer’s gaze and encapsulates the meaning of the entire scene, a chromatic trace that metaphorically illuminates what has been broken and what might still be repaired.

Willy Verginer, Homage to Hieronymus Bosch, linden wood, acrylic paint, 153×91×56 cm.

27/12/25