The paintings of Bosch are wonderful and weird. His most famous work is The Garden of Earthly Delights (which we will see in tomorrow’s post). It is a triptych on oak; meaning there are a large middle section and two smaller foldable side sections. Creation of the world is what you see when The Garden of Earthly Delights is closed. In stark contrast to the colourfull inside, Creation is painted in a monotone green-grey.
On the top left, we see God sitting with a bible on his lap. On the top of both panels, we see a Latin inscription which combined read “Ipse dixit, et facta sunt: ipse mandāvit, et creāta sunt”, ‘For he spoke and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast’. The world is enclosed by a crystal sphere (you can see the reflection of the glass in the left panel) and devoid of human and animal life, indicating it is the third day of creation.