Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights, Hell

by Larry Solomon, copyright © 2002

As our eyes move from left to right over the Garden of Earthly Delights triptych, the images change from Paradise (left panel) to Earth (central panel), and finally to Hell (right panel). Other Bosch triptychs have the same basic narrative, such as that of the "Haywain", i.e., the inevitable, fateful fall of humanity from Heaven to Hell. The Hell panels depict the doom of eternal punishments that await sinners.

Click in any of the "hot rectangles" in the following picture to see the meaning of the images.

Move your cursor over the picture to find "hot spots". Click on any for an interpretation of images.