Around 1490 -1516 · Judgment, fall of the damned and moral imagination

Hieronymus Bosch gives hell unparalleled visual power: darkness, fire, hybrid monsters and torture transform the destiny of the damned into a world teeming with deciphering.

In the triptychs and panels associated with Hieronymus Bosch, hell is not a simple religious background. It becomes an autonomous space where each fault seems to produce its own punishment. Dismembered bodies, instruments, hybrid animals, burning architecture and nocturnal landscapes compose a logic that is both narrative and enigmatic. Visions of the afterlife show the fall of the damned into darkness, opposed to the luminous ascension of the elect. Other panels depict the descent of the damned into darkness, opposed to the luminous ascension of the elect. Other panels depict the descent of the damned into darkness, opposed to the luminous ascension of the elect. Other panels depict the descent of the damned into darkness, opposed to the luminous ascension of the elect. Other panels depict the descent of the damned into darkness, opposed to the luminous ascension of the elect. Other panels depict the descent of the damned into darkness, opposed to the luminous ascension of the elect. Other panels depict the descent of the damned into darkness, opposed to the luminous ascension of the elect. Other panels depict the descent of the damned into darkness, opposed to the luminous consistent: fantastic imagination serves as a serious meditation on moral choice, human frailty and the consequences of sin. The "Hieronymus Bosch Underworld" selection notably compares Paradise and Hell and Christ's Descent into Hell. Its reading favors the atmosphere.

In Bosch, hell terrifies because it has its own laws: every monstrous detail seems to make visible a fault that has become a world.