Educational Media Reviews Online

Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516) is best known as an early Renaissance Dutch painter whose altar triptychs (three-panel altarpieces in churches) are his best-known works. To celebrate the fifth centenary of the artist's death, a major exhibition of his works was held in 2016, and this film provides an in-depth examination and discussion of one of his most mysterious and graphic pieces, The Garden of Earthly Delights. The three-piece triptych features a scene of Heaven, a scene of Earth, and a scene of Hell, which are full of small vignettes of orgiastic couplings, divine salvation, and the horrors of the Christian underworld. Exploration of this piece of art through discussions with scientists, artists, and philosophers, along with technological restoration through x-ray and preservation experts, provides the viewer with an intense and fascinating look at one piece of art by one artist at one point in time.