Giudizio universale

Around 1500, in the town of 's-Hertogenbosch, Hieronymus Bosch was painting the end of the world as if he had walked through it. This triptych keeps the old scheme, paradise on the left and hell on the right, but hands almost the whole of it over to punishment. Christ sits as judge inside a bright sphere at the top, angels sounding the trumpets around him, while below the earth has already become a torture yard of half-human machines and creatures. Bosch's workshop turned out several versions of this subject, and scholars still argue over how much of the Bruges panel is his own hand and how much his assistants'. When it was cleaned in 1959, grisaille paintings were found on the outer shutters, damaged but still there.