The Garden of Earthly Delights

Fasten your seatbelts; we are about to enter the wildest, most psychedelic, and jaw-dropping “trip” in art history—painted 500 years before LSD was even invented. Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights is located in the Prado Museum, not far from Las Meninas, but the two are from completely different dimensions.

If Las Meninas is the official royal documentary, The Garden of Earthly Delights is a dark web livestream titled “Doomsday Carnival” straight from the medieval brain. It originally belonged to the Counts of Nassau in Brussels before being acquired by Spain’s ultra-Catholic King Philip II. It is hard to imagine that this King, known for his stern rigidity, would hang such a “dance of demons” in his bedroom.

Scene 1: The Strawberry-Flavored Trap

This is a triptych. Lock your eyes on the central, largest, and most colorful panel. At first glance, it looks like a massive nude party: hundreds of naked men and women riding ducks, crawling into shells, and frolicking with giant birds.

But have you noticed? There are giant strawberries, cherries, and blackberries everywhere. In the 16th century, strawberries symbolized “fleeting pleasure” because they are sweet and juicy but rot extremely quickly. Bosch is actually satirizing humanity: indulging in carnal lust is like gluttony for strawberries; the sweetness lasts only a second, followed by rot. In early inventories, this painting was even simply listed as The Strawberry Painting, which sounds like a cute still life but is actually a moral warning.

Scene 2: The “Concert” in Hell

Shift your gaze to the rightmost panel, and welcome to “Hell.” There is no more sunlight or strawberries here, only black flames and terrifying torture devices. Here, Bosch displays his imagination as the “grandfather of Surrealism.”

Interestingly, this is not just hell; it’s a concert hall. Look at the person crushed by a giant harp and the unlucky soul tied to a lute. In Bosch’s time, excessive secular music (especially the kind that made people want to dance) was seen as a slippery slope to debauchery. So, if you partied too hard in life, you would be tortured by musical instruments in death.

Scene 3: The “Butt Sheet Music” and “Bird-Head Toilet” Under the Microscope

Get your magnifying glass ready; we are looking at two of the most outrageous details.

First, in the bottom left of the Hell panel, there is a person crushed under a giant mandolin, with a row of black sheet music stamped on his buttocks. This wasn’t just random scribbling; a few years ago, a music student actually transcribed these notes and played them—it sounds like a sad, out-of-tune “Requiem for a Butt.”

Second, look at the monster sitting on a high chair in the middle right: it has a bird’s head and is devouring a human. Only the human’s legs are visible, and he is being defecated out from under the monster into a transparent pit. This monster is jokingly called the “Prince of Hell,” and the pit beneath him is a cesspool reserved for the greedy. Bosch tells you in a disgustingly humorous way: You consume desire, and you excrete sin.

Scene 4: The “Tree Man” Staring at You

In the center of the Hell panel, there is a bizarre creature: his body is a cracked eggshell, and his legs are dead tree trunks. His face is pale and weary, looking back out at you.

Most art historians believe this is Bosch’s self-portrait. In this chaotic doomsday carnival, he alone remains lucid and sorrowful. He painted himself as a hollow eggshell, and inside, there is actually a table of people drinking and gambling! Even though his body has become part of hell, human greed is still throwing a party inside his “inner self.” This self-mockery is a stroke of genius.

Scene 5: Hollywood’s Secret Idol

You might think this painting is too old and too religious. But in fact, it is the “godfather” of contemporary pop culture.

Leonardo DiCaprio once revealed that this painting was both a childhood trauma and an enlightenment. His father hung a poster of it above his crib (what a hardcore parenting style!). Leo said this painting made him understand “overconsumption” and “environmental collapse” from a young age. From the alien designs in Star Wars to tributes in The Simpsons, and even the fashion designs of Alexander McQueen, Bosch’s weird birds and fish have been swimming in our retinas all along.

ArtBuddy’s Interactive Challenge: Next time you look at a high-res image of this painting, try to find the pig in Hell. It is wearing a nun’s habit and is forcing a kiss on a man. This is Bosch’s most biting satire of the church corruption of his time—if you find it, remember to roll your eyes at it on Bosch’s behalf.