El Juicio Final

Bosch built this large triptych in the early 1500s, and the study of its oak boards places the wood at no earlier than 1482. When the wings are open it reads left to right as one long fall. On the left is Eden and the first sin, on the right the mouth of hell, and the wide centre panel gives almost no room to the saved. Nearly the whole world has become a torture yard where small naked figures are pressed, roasted and dismembered by creatures that are half animal, half kitchen tool. Christ judges from a thin band of gold at the very top, far above the ruin. Bosch keeps the horror strangely matter-of-fact, painted with the same care a neighbour might give to a tidy town, which is part of why it unsettles.