Hieronymus Bosch: Garden of Earthly Delights

Hans Belting avoids interpreting Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights, as a heretical masterpiece, a personal examination of the church’s dogmas, or as an opulent illustration of the Creation. Instead, he sees the panels as a painted Utopia, reflecting the zeitgeist of the period. He links the work to the humanist theories of Thomas More and Willibald Pirckheimer and examines the question that Bosch posed: “What would the world have been like without the Fall?” In addition, the author determines the secular patron and analyses the intended purpose of the painting.