Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights (2004) is a work, which defies any easy explanation. Although recent studies have emphasized numerous ways in which the artist "fit into" his times, the Garden of Earthly Delights continues to intrigue both casual viewers and scholars because it does not closely resemble any other paintings of its era.
The central panel, which provides the name for the entire triptych, depicts an idyllic garden, literally teeming with all sorts of life--both believable and fantastic. Lushly painted nude figures freely and joyfully engage in sexual play with one another (in couples and groups) as well as with various animals, birds, and greatly enlarged fruits. Considered separately from the other components of the triptych, the central scene has been appreciated by some modern viewers (most notably by the Surrealists) as a bold and imaginative paean to a life of sensuous indulgence. However, taking into account the vivid (and equally fanciful) depiction of Hell on the right panel, numerous commentators, including Klier, have suggested that Bosch conceived the triptych as a moral lesson about the consequences of sin. The left panel presents God the Father, Adam, and Eve as the sole "human" inhabitants of a landscape (the Garden of Eden?), which otherwise closely resembles that of the main panel. The monochrome paintings on the exterior panels (visible in the "closed state" of the triptych) depict a transparent globe with water, earth, and clouds. The figure of God the Father in the upper left corner suggests that Bosch may have intended the exterior to represent the preliminary phases of creation; however, the drenched state of the earth also justifies interpretation of this image as a depiction of the Flood.
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