Couple in a duck

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Hiëronymus Bosch shows us how we mortal souls, arisen from earthly paradise, are on our way to the atrocious ordeals of hell via our unchaste lives on earth. The dark painting on the closed panels shows the Creation, surrounded by water, in accordance with mediaeval traditions.

On the left of the central panel of the Garden of Earthly Delights an unsuspecting man is seduced by a black woman. In the Middle Ages negroes were viewed a evil. The sin take place on a duck, the symbol of stupidity and alcoholism and is observed by a large colourful kingfisher.