Hieronymus Bosch. Garden of earthly delights. 1505-1510
When you first look at one of the most... mysterious paintings Bosch, you rather experience mixed feelings: she attracts and fascinates with a cluster large quantities unusual details. At the same time, it is impossible to understand the meaning of this accumulation of details, both in aggregate and separately.
There is nothing surprising in this impression: most of the details are full of symbols that are not known to modern people. Only Bosch's contemporaries could solve this artistic puzzle.
Let's try and figure it out. Let's start with the general meaning of the picture. It consists of four parts.
Closed doors of the triptych. world creation
Hieronymus Bosch. Closed doors of the triptych “Creation of the World”. 1505-1510 The first part (closed doors of the triptych). According to the first version, it is an image of the third day of the creation of the world. There are no humans or animals on earth yet; rocks and trees have just emerged from the water. The second version is the end of our world, after the universal flood. In the upper left corner is God contemplating his creation.
Left wing of the triptych. Paradise
Hieronymus Bosch. Paradise (left wing of the triptych “Garden of Earthly Delights”). 1505-1510 Second part (left wing of the triptych). Depiction of a scene in Paradise. God shows the surprised Adam Eve, newly created from his rib. All around are animals recently created by God. In the background are the Fountain and the lake of life, from which the first creatures of our world emerge.
The central part of the triptych. Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch. The central part of the triptych. 1505-1510 . The third part (the central part of the triptych). A depiction of the earthly life of people who massively indulge in the sin of voluptuousness. The artist shows that the Fall is so serious that people cannot take a more righteous path. He conveys this idea to us with the help of a kind of procession in a circle:
People on different animals move around the lake of carnal pleasures, unable to choose another road. Therefore, their only destiny after death, according to the artist, is Hell, which is depicted on the right wing of the triptych.
Right wing of the triptych. Hell
Hieronymus Bosch. Right wing triptych “Hell”. 1505-1510 The fourth part (right wing of the triptych). A depiction of hell, where sinners experience eternal torment. In the middle of the picture is a strange creature made from a hollow egg, with legs in the form of tree trunks with human face- presumably this is a guide through Hell, the main demon. Read the article about which sinners he is responsible for tormenting.
That's how general meaning warning pictures. The artist shows us how easy it is to fall into sin and end up in Hell, despite the fact that humanity was once born in Paradise.
Symbols of Bosch's painting
Why so many characters and symbols?
I really like Hans Belting's theory on this, put forward in 2002. Based on his research, Bosch created this painting not for the church, but for private collection. Allegedly, the artist had an agreement with the buyer that he would deliberately create a rebus painting. The future owner intended to entertain his guests, who would guess the meaning of this or that scene in the picture.
In the same way, we can now unravel fragments of the picture. However, without understanding the symbols adopted in Bosch's time, it is very difficult for us to do this. Let's look at at least some of them to make it more interesting to “read” the picture.
Eating “voluptuous” berries and fruits is one of the main symbols of lust. That is why there are so many of them in the Garden of Earthly Delights.
People are in glass spheres or under a glass dome. There is a Dutch proverb that says that love is as short-lived and fragile as glass. The depicted spheres are just covered with cracks. Perhaps the artist also sees in this fragility the path to the Fall, since after short period love is inevitable adultery.
Sins of the Middle Ages
It is also difficult for a modern person to interpret the depicted torment of sinners (on the right wing of the triptych). The fact is that in our minds, a passion for idle music or stinginess (frugality) are not perceived as something bad, unlike how people perceived it in the Middle Ages.
They say that his paintings contain the secrets of alchemists, sorcerers and astrologers. His works are credited with the fame of the greatest puzzles in history, as well as religious sermons. And he himself is called the Honorary Professor of Nightmares. Of course, we are talking about Hieronymus Bosch.
The life and death of the artist are wrapped in a duvet of secrets and mysteries. Researchers are still trying to lift at least its edge to find out how everything really was, but the attempts are in vain.
The artist, who left the world 500 years ago, still finds ways to remind us of himself! Quite recently, for example, there was a fuss around...the sinner's butt! Yes, yes, that's not a typo. American student Amelia Hamrick caught everyone's attention globe to its discovery. She found a use for the notes that Bosch painted on the buttocks of one of the characters in his painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” The girl jokingly translated these symbols into a piano melody and posted it on her art blog. The 25-second song received a record number of likes and secured the student’s name in the queries of all search engines. Moreover, the best professors at Oklahoma Christian University became interested in her discovery! Amelia finds it very funny that scientists are discussing the naked butt of some ancient man with a serious look.
Let's understand this story from the very beginning. And it began around 1510, when Hieronymus Bosch painted a picture, the true name of which has not reached us. People freely dubbed the triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” The work consists of three panels and symbolizes the entire path of humanity: the first depicts Adam and Eve, the second - the vicious and sinful world of people, and the third - paintings Last Judgment, which Dante Alighieri himself would envy. We are interested in precisely this leaf.
If you look more closely, among the diversity different images and scenes you will see “musical hell”. If as a child you were scared that devils would fry sinners in a hot frying pan, then Bosch had his own idea of torture. Someone is crucified on a harp, and someone is tortured on a lute, with notes carefully tattooed on his buttocks. Probably to make singing more comfortable. And the choir is led by a monster with a fish head. A touching picture, isn't it?
All the media are surprised: for 500 years no one thought of playing this very melody! In fact, this is not entirely true, but we will return to this issue a little later. In the meantime, let's tell you the second part of the story, which happened in our days.
Imagine a university dormitory conference room after midnight. There are two people in the room, among others: Amelia and her friend. Young people enthusiastically look at the painting of the Emeritus Professor of Nightmares (what else is there to do at one in the morning in the dormitory?). And suddenly... they notice the notes! By a happy coincidence, a fragment of the triptych caught my eye to the right person: The girl's father has a doctorate in musicology. And most importantly: his specialty is the years 1500-1600!
What does it mean? What Amelia Hamrick was able to decipher correctly stave, which has only four lines. The fact is that in the Middle Ages such a musical notation. The student suggested that the key of the lower voice is C major, as was customary in medieval chorales. “I said, 'I'm going to record this, guys. I did it as a joke and posted it on my blog. Apparently it was historical moment» ,─ Amelia commented. “I spent about an hour on everything. In fact, there may be inaccuracies in my transcription."“,” she continued.
I didn’t even think the story would end there! Scientists, journalists, teachers and just onlookers became interested in the amazing discovery. A professor at the university where the 20-year-old girl is studying said: “The transcription took us by surprise in the middle of the semester. We didn't have time to research it.". But he really hopes that this discovery will result in a dissertation or doctoral work! Amelia herself is simply wondering if the notes have anything to do with the picture. Maybe it should be watched with the soundtrack from the hero’s loin? Or maybe the author simply wrote the notes for beauty and symmetry?
Another tumblr.com user, William Ascenzo, posted a modernized version of the tune in response to Amelia Hamrick's post. He wrote an arrangement for it and composed the lyrics! The words sound like this: "Our priests sing while we burn in purgatory"…
butt song from hell
this is the butt song from hell
we sing from our asses while burning in purgatory
the butt song from hell
the butt song from hell
butts
Since we're talking about the people involved in this melody, we'll tell you about one more thing unknown fact. At the beginning of this article, we mentioned that until this moment no one had dared to desecrate Bosch’s “score.” This is not true. Back in 2003 Swedish group under the name Vox vulgaris created a composition based on notes from the buttocks of a sinner! Only, for some reason, it was not given such publicity.
The song is called De jordiska fröjdernas paradis, it was released on the disc The shape of medieval music to come. The guys tried to choose the music as close as possible to the original. Whether they succeeded or not - you can understand for yourself by listening to the composition.
I wonder how I would react great artist to such a free arrangement of your notes and all the hype around the picture? They say he was a terribly religious person, a member of the Brotherhood of the Virgin Mary. His works were unconditionally accepted and encouraged by the church, and his contemporaries perceived surreal paintings as religious instructions. “Don’t sin, you’ll go to hell!”, ─ all his gloomy paintings seem to say. Probably the artist would call us all sinners and draw a new “warning”.
In fact, Bosch's personality is woven from conjecture, absurdity and assumptions. Some paint him as a mystic, some as a fanatic, and some as a joker. The fact is that almost nothing about the artist’s life has survived to this day: no letters, no memories, no notes. Only dry facts from the city archive. What do we know about him for sure? Let's list it.
- The real name of the artist is Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken.
- The exact year of birth is unknown. The date is calculated approximately by historians.
- Bosch is a pseudonym that comes from the name hometown painter 's-Hertogenbosch.
- He was a member of the Brotherhood of the Virgin Mary.
- Jeroen van Aken was one of richest people his city, as he successfully married Aleit Goyaerts van der Meerwenne.
- Bosch supposedly lived to be 65 years old.
- The number of paintings painted by the artist is unknown. Only 25 paintings and 8 drawings have reached us. None of the works have a date or signature.
There are now much more rumors than true facts about the life of an artist. The most popular is the myth of the death of Bosch (or maybe not a myth at all?). They say that when the painter's grave was opened, it turned out to be empty. In addition, the fragment of the tombstone began to glow and heat up when it was studied under a microscope...
Since our story has two main characters, I would like to return to the second of them. There is also little information about Amelia Hamrick. But we are lucky that the girl is our contemporary and an active Internet user. Therefore the editors Artifex I managed to get some information about her. We have already mentioned that the student’s parents are involved in music. Moreover, they both work in scientific libraries. Amelia dreams of following in their footsteps. Interestingly, she was not only interested in her father's research in the field of music, but also comprehended this field herself. The girl even knows how to play several musical instruments.
There is another unusual detail: Hamrick has specific hearing problems. She can hear high-frequency sounds normally or better than other people, but low-frequency sounds much less well. “Sometimes I’m surprised that music sounds different to me than to everyone else, but I still love it.”“,” she admitted.
Amelia Hamrick is now working with a music history professor to improve the accuracy of the melody. She also hinted that she would not stop there, because Bosch still has so many paintings depicting notes...
Hieronymus Bosch. Garden of earthly delights. 1505-1510
According to our modern ideas there is no violence and death in heaven. However, they take place in Bosch's paradise. The lion has caught the deer and is already biting into its flesh. A wild cat carries a caught amphibian in its teeth. And the bird is about to swallow the frog.
Of course, it is difficult to classify animals as sinners, because they kill for the sake of survival. But I think Bosch brought these scenes into the image of heaven for a reason.
Perhaps this was his way of trying to show that there is no escape from the cruelty of the world, even in heaven. And man, as a part of nature, is also endowed with cruelty. The question is how he will dispose of it: will he fall into sin or will he be able to curb his animal nature.
2. How could Bosch see exotic animals?
Bosch depicted not only fantastic monsters, but also real-life animals from distant Africa. Hardly a resident Western Europe could see an elephant or a giraffe in person. After all, there were no circuses and zoos in the Middle Ages. So how did he manage to portray them so accurately then?
In the time of Bosch, very rarely, but still there were travelers who brought drawings of unknown animals from distant countries.
The giraffe, for example, was most likely copied by Bosch from a drawing by the traveler Ciriaco d'Ancona. At the end of the 15th century, he traveled extensively around the Mediterranean in search of ancient structures. Today d'Ancona is considered the father of modern archaeology. While traveling around Egypt, he made a sketch of a giraffe.
3. Why do men dance in a circle, riding different animals?
In the central part of the triptych, people rejoice in earthly life, indulging in the sin of voluptuousness. it’s simply overflowing with naked people: they eat berries and fruits, talk and hug here and there. Hieronymus Bosch. Garden of earthly delights. The central part of the triptych. 1505-1510 Prado Museum, Madrid.
The least chaotic in the picture seems to be a round dance of unusual riders: men ride various animals around a lake in which girls are serenely splashing.
I really like the explanation that journalist Konstantin Rylev gave to this action. The girls in the lake are lonely ladies waiting for their chosen ones. Each of them has either a fruit or a bird on its head. Perhaps they mean the character and essence of a woman. Some have black birds sitting on them, symbols of misfortune. Such women are more likely to make their men unhappy because bad character. On others there are red berries, a symbol of lust and debauchery.
But the character of a man is determined by the animal he rides. There are horses, camels, and wild boars here. But the goat is still free, without a rider.
It is also noteworthy that the men hold different gifts for future chosen ones - some fish, some eggs or berries. Having found their soul mate, couples scatter around the garden so that they can no longer enjoy the earthly dissolute life alone.
4. If Bosch depicts how people indulge in the sin of voluptuousness, then where are the actual dissolute scenes?
Despite the fact that Bosch depicted countless naked figures who, according to his idea, indulge in the sin of voluptuousness, you are unlikely to find any frankly indecent scenes here.
But that's just at first glance modern man. For Bosch’s time, the image of naked bodies is already the personification of extreme debauchery.
However, there is still one dissolute couple in the picture, which surpasses all the others in the frankness of their gestures. It is well hidden, so finding it is very difficult.
The couple settled down in the depths of the garden in the hole of the central fountain: the bearded man put his palm on the bosom of the large-headed woman.
5. Why are there so many birds in the garden of delights?
An owl is often found on the left and central parts of the triptych. We may falsely think that it is a symbol of wisdom. But this meaning was relevant in antiquity, and it is also accepted in our time.
However, in the Middle Ages, the owl, as a nocturnal predatory animal, was a harbinger of evil and death. Just like the owl's potential victims, people must be on guard, as evil and death are looking out for them and threatening to attack them.
Therefore, an owl in the hole of the fountain of life in paradise is rather a warning that evil does not sleep even in a sinless space and is only waiting for the moment when you stumble.
Also in the central part there are many birds of enormous size, on which people sit astride. Obsolete value The Dutch word vogel (bird) means sexual intercourse. Therefore the image big birds- This is Bosch's allegory about the unrestrainedness of people in lust and debauchery.
Among thrushes, ducks and woodpeckers there is also a hoopoe, which was associated by people of the Middle Ages with sewage. After all, the hoopoe, having a long beak, really often picks around in the manure.
Lust is the dirty aspiration of a person according to the ideas of religious people of the Middle Ages, like Bosch. Therefore, it is not surprising that he depicted him here.
6. Why are not all sinners tormented in Hell?
There are many mysteries on the right wing of the triptych, which depicts Hell. It is infested with all kinds of monsters. They torment sinners - they devour them, pierce them with knives or lustfully pester them. Hieronymus Bosch. Garden of earthly delights. The right wing of the triptych “Hell”. 1505-1510
But not all souls accept torment. I drew attention to the sinners who are on the main demon in the center of the picture.
Inside the hollow egg is a tavern where sinners drink, albeit while riding on a lizard-like creature. And a sad man looks out from the tavern and looks at the chaos taking place. The souls of sinners walk along the brim of the hat arm in arm with monsters.
It turns out that they are not particularly tortured, but are given a drink, walked with them, or allowed to be sad alone. Perhaps these are those who sold their souls to the devil and a warm place without torment was reserved for them? But there’s no escape from contemplating the torment of others.
I also wrote in detail about this tree demon in the article.
7. What kind of notes are depicted on the sinner’s bottom? Is it nonsense or a specific melody?
There are many sinners in Hell who were punished for playing musical instruments for fun and pleasure during their lifetime. In Bosch's time, it was considered correct to perform and listen only to church music.
Among such sinners, one is crushed by a huge lute. There are sheet music on his backside. Until recently, researchers did not pay much attention to them, considering it only as an element of composition.
But one student at Oklahoma Christian University decided to see if the notes were meaningless.
Everyone was amazed when she rearranged the melody into modern notation and recorded it in the format of male choral singing in the key of C major. This is exactly how this music sounded in Bosch's time:
The melody is pleasant, but not like a cheerful song. More like a church hymn. The picture shows that the sinners are performing it in chorus. Apparently their torment lies in forever performing the same tune.
Here are just a few of the mysteries fantastic picture Middle Ages.
In fact, this work raises many more questions. But you won’t find a single tolmut with clues. For Pieter Bruegel the Elder, a contemporary of Bosch, everything was much more clear, and researchers have long deciphered his works. After all, he depicted Dutch proverbs.
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“The Garden of Earthly Delights” is one of the most famous works great artist (1450-1516). Your own triptych Dutch artist dedicated to sin and religious ideas about the structure of the universe. The approximate time of writing is 1500-1510. Oil on wood, 389x220 cm. The triptych is currently on display at the Prado Museum in Madrid.
What Hieronymus Bosch actually called his creation is unknown. Researchers who studied the painting in the 20th century called it “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” That’s what the work is still called today. Researchers and connoisseurs of Bosch's art are still arguing about the meaning of this painting, its symbolic stories And mysterious images. This triptych is considered one of the most mysterious works himself mysterious artist Renaissance.
The painting was named the Garden of Earthly Delights after the central part, where a certain garden with people enjoying themselves is presented. On the sides there are other scenes. The left side depicts the creation of Adam and Eve. Hell is depicted on the right wing. Triptych has a huge number of details, figures, mysterious creatures and completely undeciphered plots. The painting seems to be a real book, in which a certain message is encrypted, the artist’s creative vision of being in the world. Through many details that can be looked at for hours, the artist expresses main idea- the essence of sin, the trap of sin and the payment for sin.
Fantastic buildings strange creatures and monsters, caricatures of characters - all this can seem like a giant hallucination. This picture fully justifies the opinion that Bosch is considered the first surrealist in history.
The picture has caused many interpretations and disputes among researchers. Some argued that central part may represent or even glorify bodily pleasures. Thus, Bosch depicted the sequence: the creation of man - the triumph of voluptuousness on earth - the subsequent punishment of hell. Other researchers reject this point of view and point to the fact that the church in Bosch’s time welcomed this painting, which may mean that the central part depicts not earthly pleasures, but paradise.
Few people adhere to the latter version, since if you look closely at the figures in the central part of the picture, you can see that Bosch in an allegorical form depicted the disastrous consequences of earthly pleasures. Naked people who have fun and indulge in love, have some symbolic elements of death. Such symbolic allegories of punishment may include: a shell that slams lovers (the shell is the feminine principle), aloe that digs into human flesh, and so on. Riders who ride various animals and fantastic creatures- cycle of passions. Women picking apples and eating fruits are a symbol of sin and passion. Also in the picture, various proverbs are demonstrated in illustrative form. Many of the proverbs that Hieronymus Bosch used in his triptych have not survived to our time and therefore the images cannot be deciphered. For example, one of the proverbial images is an image with several lovers who are closed with a glass bell. If this proverb did not survive to our time, the image could never be deciphered: “Happiness and glass - how short-lived they are.”
To summarize, we can say that Bosch depicted in his painting the destructiveness of lust and adultery. On the right side of the painting, which depicts the surreal horrors of hell, the artist showed the result of earthly pleasures. The right wing is called " Musical hell"due to the presence of several musical instruments here - a harp, a lute, notes, as well as a choir of souls led by a monster with a fish head.
All three images are from the interior of The Garden of Earthly Delights. If the doors are closed, another image appears. Here the world is depicted on the third day after God created it from the void. The earth here is in a certain sphere, it is surrounded by water. Greenery is already growing in full force on the earth, the Sun is shining, but there are no animals or people yet. On the left wing the inscription reads: “He spoke, and it was done,” on the right, “He commanded, and it was done.”
The triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights" is the most famous and mysterious of Bosch's works. In 1593, it was purchased by the Spanish King Philip II, who liked the artist’s works. Since 1868, the triptych has been in the collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Garden of Earthly Delights Around 1500 Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain
The central part of the triptych is a panorama of a fantastic “garden of love”, inhabited by many naked figures of men and women, unprecedented animals, birds and plants. Lovers shamelessly indulge in lovemaking in ponds, in incredible crystal structures, hiding under the skin of huge fruits or in shell flaps.
Animals of unnatural proportions, birds, fish, butterflies, algae, huge flowers and fruits mixed with human figures. 
In the composition of “The Garden of Earthly Joys” three plans are distinguished:
“various joys” are shown in the foreground. There is luxury pond and fountain, flowers of absurdity and castles of vanity. 
The second plan is occupied by a motley cavalcade of numerous naked horsemen who ride deer, griffins, panthers and boars - nothing more than a cycle of passions passing through a labyrinth of pleasures. 
The third (farthest) is crowned with a blue sky, where people fly on winged fish and with the help of their own wings.
All these characters and scenes, taking place among intricate combinations of plants, rocks, fruits, glass spheres and crystals, are united not so much internal logic narratives as much as symbolic connections, the meaning of which was understood differently by each new generation.
cherries, strawberries, strawberries and grapes, eaten with such joy by people, symbolize sinful sexuality, devoid of the light of divine love
birds become the personification of lust and debauchery, Love couple secluded herself in a transparent bubble. A little taller young man hugs huge owl, to the right of the bubble in the middle of the pool, in the water, another man stands on his head, legs spread wide, between which the birds have built a nest.
Not far from him, a young man, leaning out of a pink hollow apple with his beloved, feeds a monstrous bunch of grapes to people standing up to their necks in water. 
fish is a symbol of restless lust,
the shell is feminine. 
At the bottom of the picture, a young man hugged a huge strawberry. In Western European art, strawberries served as a symbol of purity and virginity. 
The scene with a bunch of grapes in the pool is a communion, and a giant pelican, having picked up a cherry (a symbol of sensuality) on its long beak, teases with it the people sitting in the bud of a fantastic flower. The pelican itself symbolizes love for one's neighbor.
The artist often gives a specifically sensual sound to the symbols of Christian art, reducing them to the material-physical plane 
In the Tower of Adultery, which rises from the Lake of Lust and whose yellow-orange walls sparkle like crystal, deceived husbands sleep among the horns. The steel-colored glass sphere in which lovers indulge in caresses is topped with a crescent moon crown and pink marble horns. The sphere and glass bell sheltering the three sinners illustrate the Dutch proverb: “Happiness and glass - how short-lived they are!” They are also symbols of the heretical nature of sin and the dangers it brings to the world. 
The left side of the "Garden of Delights" depicts the scene of the "Creation of Eve", and Paradise itself glitters and shimmers with bright, sparkling colors 
Various animals graze among the green hills, against the backdrop of the fantastic landscape of Paradise, around a pond with a bizarre structure.
This is the Fountain of Life, from which various creatures emerge onto land. 
In the foreground, near the Tree of Knowledge, the master shows the awakening Adam. Adam, who has just woken up, rises from the ground and looks in amazement at Eve, whom God shows him.
The famous art critic C. de Tolnay notes that the surprised look that Adam casts at the first woman is already a step on the path to sin. And Eve, extracted from Adam’s rib, is not just a woman, but also an instrument of seduction.
As usual with Bosch, no idyll exists without an omen of evil, and we see a pit with dark water, a cat with a mouse in its teeth (cat - cruelty, devil) 
Several incidents cast a dark shadow on the peaceful life of animals: a lion devours a deer, a wild boar pursues a mysterious beast.
And above it all rises the Source of Life - a hybrid of plant and marble rock, a soaring Gothic structure set on the dark blue stones of a small island. At the very top of it there is still a barely noticeable crescent, but already from within it an owl peeks out, like a worm, the messenger of misfortune. 
The fabulous paradise of the central panel gives way to the nightmare of Hell, in which the excitement of passion is transformed into the madness of suffering. The right wing of the triptych - Hell - is dark, gloomy, alarming, with individual flashes of light piercing the darkness of the night, and with sinners who are tormented by some kind of giant musical instruments. 
As always with Bosch when depicting Hell, the burning city serves as the background, but here the buildings not only do not burn, but rather they explode, throwing out jets of fire. The main theme is chaos, in which normal relationships are turned upside down, and ordinary objects are turned upside down. 
In the center of Hell there is a huge figure of a monster, this is a kind of “guide” to Hell - the main “storyteller”. His legs are hollow tree trunks, and they rest on two ships.
Satan's body is an open eggshell, on the brim of his hat, demons and witches either walk or dance with sinful souls... Or they lead people guilty of unnatural sin around a huge bagpipe (a symbol of masculinity). 
Around the ruler of Hell, the punishment of sins takes place: one sinner was crucified, pierced by the strings of a harp; next to him, a red-bodied demon conducts a hellish orchestra singing from notes written on the buttocks of another sinner. Musical instruments(as a symbol of voluptuousness and debauchery), turned into instruments of torture. 
In a high chair sits a bird-headed monster, punishing gluttons and gluttons. He stuck his feet into beer jugs, and put a bowler hat on his bird's head. And he punishes sinners by devouring them and then they plunge into a pit, the glutton is forced to continuously vomit into the pit, the vain woman is caressed by monsters. 
The Door of Hell represents the third stage of the Fall, when the earth itself turned into hell. Objects that previously served sin have now become instruments of punishment. These chimeras of a guilty conscience have all the specific meanings of the sexual symbols of dreams.
The harmless rabbit (in the picture it is larger than a human) in Christianity was a symbol of the immortality of the soul and abundance. In Bosch, he plays the horn and lowers the sinner head down into the fire of hell. 
Below, on an icy lake, a man balances on a large skate, which carries him to the ice hole. A huge key attached to the shaft by a monk reveals the latter’s desire for marriage, which is prohibited for members of the clergy.
Helpless male figure fights the amorous advances of a pig, dressed as a nun. 
“In this horror there is no salvation for those mired in sins,” says Bosch pessimistically.
On the outer surface of the closed doors, the artist depicted the Earth on the third day of creation. It is shown as a transparent sphere, half filled with water. The outlines of land emerge from the dark moisture. In the distance, in the cosmic darkness, the Creator appears, watching the birth of a new world... 
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And so it became.
10 And God called the dry land earth, and the meeting of the waters he called seas. And God saw that [it] was good.
11 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, grass yielding seed, fruitful trees, bearing fruit according to its kind, in which is its seed on the earth.” And so it became.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed according to its kind, and tree yielding fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind. And God saw that [it] was good.
13 And there was evening, and there was morning: the third day.
Old Testament Genesis 1
The format of the triptych is traditional for Dutch altarpieces, but the content shows that Bosch did not intend it for a church.
