Week 13: Malia Paresa: The Garden of Earthly Delights

I think that the Garden of Earthly Delights was a triptych describing the vast difference between heaven and hell. It also serves as a chronological set up of how hell came to be illustrating on the outside of the triptych the creation of the earth, which would've been the first thing the viewer saw. Upon opening the panel, we see that God is introducing Adam and Eve and that there exists a restful, happy place where the atmosphere is calm. As we progressively move towards the left, the tone of the painting gets darker and darker and we know that we are venturing into Hell. Although the images that depict hell are not as violent as I would expect, we see images that seem disoriented and unnatural. For example, we see a tree person housing animals in what looks like an egg and two ears that are pinned together and hanging in the middle of space. However we know that this is Hell because the atmosphere and setting are not as calm as they were in Heaven. While in Heaven, the weather is sunny and free, Hell is darker and much more crowded. I think the intention was to make hell seem horrifying because of all of the disgusting images, but I find them interesting instead. Hell is almost more appealing because of the diverse subject matter.