The Bible in Pictures

This is the outside of the Garden of Earthly Delights. With its wings closed, the triptych shows the world on the third day, painted in grey: the waters are gathered, the first plants grow, and neither animal nor human is there yet. In the upper corner sits God, very small.

Opened, the triptych shows Paradise, the Garden of Earthly Delights and Hell in strong colour. Closed, it is almost without colour, and the world is a flat disc of land inside a transparent sphere. The triptych is recorded in 1517 in the palace of the counts of Nassau in Brussels.

In the corner God sits with a book. The line across both wings is from Psalm 33: he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

In the corner God sits with a book. The line across both wings is from Psalm 33: he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

The land of the third day: hills, water and the first plants, some of them already as strange as the ones inside.

The land of the third day: hills, water and the first plants, some of them already as strange as the ones inside.