From the artist's life
On a panel of The Garden of Earthly Delights, a tiny figure has musical notes written on his backside — and musicians have since played the butt song from Hell.
Source: Wikipedia / WikimediaRenaissance
Hieronymus Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516) created some of the most bizarre and unforgettable images in all of art — teeming visions of paradise, temptation and hell. His fantastical monsters still feel startlingly modern five centuries later.
Bosch's nightmarish imagination made him a hero of the Surrealists, who saw in him a 400-year-old ancestor.
- Painted The Garden of Earthly Delights, a triptych unlike anything before or after it.
- Filled his hells with hybrid creatures, monstrous machines and inventive torments.
- So original that little is known of his life, fuelling centuries of speculation.
Key works
Where to start
Complete list of key works
Works with a dedicated ArtAtlas page are highlighted in gold.
- The Garden of Earthly DelightsOn ArtAtlas
- Ship of FoolsListed for reference
- The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last ThingsListed for reference
- The Haywain TriptychListed for reference
- Ecce HomoListed for reference
- The ConjurerListed for reference
- Visions of the HereafterListed for reference
- The Last JudgmentListed for reference
- The Marriage Feast at CanaListed for reference
1490
The Garden of Earthly Delights
The Garden of Earthly Delights is the modern title given to a five-panel triptych by the Early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch, between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between 40 and 60 years old. Because of Bosch's religious beliefs, interpretations of the work typically assume it is a warning against the perils of temptation.