The left panel of the triptych is rather serene if taken on its own. This other worldly environment depicts God presenting Eve to Adam. Adam is relaxing on hillside near
pool. Various animals, real and imaginary, are interacting in this surreal landscape.
The garden of Eden, while humans are still innocent.
In the center panel, humans have fallen from innocence, fallen from God's graces. The panel depicts chaos. While still a surreal landscape, there is no serenety. It all appears to be a jumble of various activities. Humans riding animals in a circle around a pool of women in the middle of the panel. Several exceptionally large berries are being eaten throughout, in addition to a number of larger than life, or these humans, birds. These must be symbolic for something. I don't know about the birds.
The right panel surely must be hell. Various depictions of suffering. Musical instruments used for torture. Oversized animals devoring humans/souls. Abstract images of items like knives coming out of ears, skulls hanging humans by poles or spears. Where the left panel is serene and peacefull this is grotesque and tramatic.
Perhaps Bosch was attempting to portray how living by God's laws would lead to serenity, while living a life of earthly delights(sin) would lead to endless suffering. It is unlikely that the images he used in these panels simply represented what they appeared to be.
Interesting that several of the images we've looked at remind me more of Dali's work. Does that say something about the medieval mind or about Dali's?
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