The figures in the painting are taking part of all the earth has to offer - a paradigm that is much more common regarding sex and other sensual pleasures today. Furthermore, the religious terror of Hell has somewhat diminished; we now have more practical concerns, such as leaving a sustainable heritage to our children.

A therefore believe that Bosch would have painted vastly different images of our world today. Rather than for example following the biblical pattern of perfection - fall - damnation, he might have explicated his theme by means of earth history. Before the arrival of the modern age, human beings lived in a sort of innocent harmony with the earth. With technology, the "fall" occurred. The atrocities we see now (as discussed by Williams) is the condemnation after the fall, or a kind of hell on earth. The first of the triptych might therefore be landscapes and...
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