Poplar wood cannot be dated dendrochronologically, so it is impossible to fix a terminus post quem for this panel. Bosch offers a more personal view of Hell, with sinners receiving the punishments they deserve. In Glory, Saint Peter welcomes the souls of the blessed to Heaven, represented as a Gothic building with a shining gold background. Bosch’s treatment of the Last Judgment echoes the tradition of Rogier van der Weyden, with the dead rising from their tombs. The scene in the Death tondo closely resembles that depicted in Death and the Miser in Washington, but here the protagonist is receiving the last rites, and the angel has clearly won the contest. Greed is conveyed by a magistrate accepting a bribe, and in Envy a couple clearly covet the falcon being shown off by a rich man, whilst two dogs fight over a bone.Īt the corners of the Table, four smaller circles contain representations of the Last Things, Death, the Last Judgment, Hell and Glory. The family embodying Gluttony gorge themselves with food and drink. Sloth is personified by a man asleep by the fire, unwilling to devote himself to prayer. Lust shows two courtly couples dallying in a tent, with entertainment provided by a jester. Moving anticlockwise, the next segment represents Pride, as a woman preening herself in a mirror held up by a devil. Here, it is depicted in the form of a drunken brawl outside a tavern. Yet, regardless of the message, some of the scenes -particularly Gluttony- mark him out as a pioneer in genre painting, which was later to acquire such importance.Īnger or Wrath ( ira), placed in a privileged position with regard to the banderoles and the figure of Christ, occupies the space traditionally held by Pride and Envy as the sources of all human sin. Bosch conveyed this moral teaching through everyday situations involving people from different social classes, observed by the all-seeing eye of God. This innermost circle or pupil is surrounded by gilded rays stretching to the outer ring, which is divided into seven segments of varying size, each depicting one of the seven Deadly Sins, identified by an inscription. It is an appeal to the faithful, urging them to follow the path that Jesus has shown them and to meditate on his death on the cross for the forgiveness of man’s sins. A similar image is to be found in The Mass of Saint Gregory on the closed shutters of the Prado Adoration of the Magi ( P02048). At the centre of the largest, central circle, which resembles a huge eye or a concave mirror, Christ is shown rising from his tomb as the Man of Sorrows, displaying the wound in his side. As in The Haywain ( P02052), the dismantled Pilgrimage of Life triptych and The Garden of Earthly Delights( P02823), the message conveyed by the Table of the Seven Deadly Sinsis that Hell awaits those who stray from God’s path.īosch represents the message in five circles. These three texts link God’s omnipresence with man’s freedom and the fruits of sin. According to the Latin inscription beneath him: Cave cave dus videt (Beware, beware, the Lord is watching). Yet all is not lost: Christ, portrayed in the innermost ring of the large central roundel, is ever alert. Man, bereft of reason, seems to have set out in unbridled pursuit of the Seven Deadly Sins. The lower banderole, set between Hell and Glory, reads: Absconda facie mea ab eis: et siderabo novissia eo (I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be). O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end)!. The upper banderole, between the tondos of Death and the Last Judgment, reads: Gens absq silio e et sine prudentia // deutroy 32 // utina saperet itelligeret ac novissia pvideret (For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. Two banderoles, one above and the other below the central circle, contain Latin texts from Deuteronomy (32: 28-29 and 20), warning against the wages of sin.