What Hieronymus Bosch’s Fantastical Triptychs Reveal About the Artist’s Worldview
Catherine Daunt | Literary Hub | 25th August 2026
To modern eyes, Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights is “bizarre”. Living in a regional Netherlandish town, he had a flourishing reputation, yet by the time he was commissioned to paint The Garden of Earthly Delights, his outlook was darkening. He expected people to take responsibility for their actions but the frolicking figures in this work betray pessimism about this happening. The many owls looking on carry his stern message that people “should behave” and there would be hell to pay if they didn’t.