The Garden of Earthly Delights

Like a precursor to cinema, the painting uses three hinged panels to tell a chronological story of human existence and morality. The left panel depicts the Garden of Eden, the center portrays the "delights" of the world, and the right (not fully detailed here, but implied) shows the consequences of those delights in Hell. This format was common for Netherlandish altarpieces, but Bosch’s version is so provocative that historians believe it was commissioned for a private palace rather than a church.

The work is unified by a consistent horizon line and landscape features that flow between the panels, suggesting they inhabit the same physical space. However, while the side panels contain clear depictions of God and the afterlife, the central panel is notable for the conspicuous absence of the divine, leaving humanity to exercise its free will in a surreal, unsupervised playground.

When the triptych’s wings are closed, the viewer is met with a grisaille (monochrome) depiction of the world on the Third Day of Creation. This muted palette of greens and grays likely represents a time before the sun and moon were created to "give light." The Earth is shown as a fragile, transparent sphere suspended in a dark, impermeable cosmos, with God appearing as a tiny, distant figure in the corner.

This "bland" exterior was a deliberate artistic choice intended to maximize the psychological impact on the viewer. When the shutters were opened, the transition from the somber, hushed grisaille to the explosion of saturated color inside would have been a shocking, sensory revelation—mirroring the transition from the silence of creation to the noise of human history.

The left panel, often called the Joining of Adam and Eve, deviates from traditional Renaissance depictions. Instead of a purely peaceful paradise, Bosch includes unsettling details: a lion devouring its prey and a cat with a lizard in its mouth. These "vicious" nature scenes suggest that even in Eden, the seeds of death and predation were already present.

The central figures form a "closed circuit" of energy; God holds Eve’s wrist while Adam’s feet touch God’s robes. While this represents a divine blessing, some historians interpret Adam’s intense gaze not as holy reverence, but as the first flicker of carnal lust. The presence of exotic animals—like a giraffe and an elephant—likely came from contemporary travelogues, signaling Bosch’s intent to appeal to a sophisticated, well-read audience.

The central panel is a masterpiece of surrealism where scale and proportion are discarded. Huge birds play with tiny humans, people live inside translucent bubbles or giant fruit, and fish walk on land while humans dwell in the water. This "garden" is teeming with naked figures engaged in "amorous sports," exhibiting a sense of adolescent curiosity and joy that feels detached from traditional religious gravity.

The symbolism is dense and often contradictory. Gigantic strawberries and cherries appear throughout, possibly representing the fleeting nature of pleasure (the "sweetness" that disappears quickly). In a world without God’s visible presence, humanity appears completely self-absorbed, cavorting with fantastic beasts in a landscape that is neither heaven nor earth, but a fever dream of unbridled freedom.

Near the bottom right of the central panel, a fully clothed man with dark, "Mediterranean" features points toward a reclining woman. He is the only person in the entire scene who is not naked, and his face—often compared to Machiavelli’s—expresses a "strong controlling will." Scholars have debated his identity for centuries: he has been called the patron who paid for the painting, John the Baptist, or even a self-portrait of Bosch himself.

His presence disrupts the "innocent" revelry of the garden. By pointing at a woman whose mouth is sealed, he introduces an element of secrecy and judgment into an otherwise open landscape. Whether he is denouncing the sin around him or acting as a guide for the viewer, he remains the painting's most frustrating and fascinating enigma.