The Last Judgement, by Hieronymus Bosch, is considered one of the most beautiful paintings of all time. The painting is supposed to represent three stages of Christianity, Adam and Eve, the Last Judgement, and Hell. However, this painting does not simply represent three different worlds as most people believe. By looking at this painting we can see that this painting is a prediction of how religion will change over time; and this is important because it gives valuable insight as to what people in the past believed human nature was.

The painting includes three panels, the panel on the left depicts the Garden of Eden, the middle panel represents the judgements Jesus does on people to either accept or deny them from heaven, and the panel on the right is a visual of what hell is supposed to be. At first glance one usually assumes that the painting represents three different worlds. But if you look closely at the background of the images you can see a lot of similarities. The backgrounds are very hilly with plateaus and other rock structures. This could represent the fact that this painting is not of three different scenes but rather one scene and a progression of religion throughout time. The lifestyle for the left panel would be a pious and deeply religious one, these people are highly devoted to god and follow his every command until they are tempted to betray his trust. The panel in the middle would represent when people start to move away from religion. They still go to church and believe in God but he is not their main focus in life and they still behave badly outside of church and prayer. This panel is the largest because it represents a larger piece of history. The scene on the right would be representative of the people who are not religious and habitual sinners. These people live in a chaotic world and live to sin. They have no attachment to religion or God. This prediction seems to be relatively accurate as to how history has played out so far. People that were around a long time ago were deeply religious and it controlled their lives. They started battles, wars, and crusades all in the name of their religions. This sort of dedication faded after hundreds of years. As new technologies developed people needed to work harder and focus on their jobs more. This led a distancing from religion and a focus on other things that are perceived as more important. This is the stage society is at today, fewer and fewer people take up a deep religious stance. The third stage of the painting has not occurred yet but given time it may happen. 

The color scheme slowly changes from a green oasis to a dark desert. This slow transformation does not seem like a change between three different worlds but more like the transformation between one world with several different ideas. In this painting the green clearly represents the religion and the darker the scene gets the farther away from God one becomes. The shadows in the painting also build the case. There are little to no shadows in the left panel but as you look the right the panels get more shadow. Many people may think that the shadows just represent evil, but when considering how shadows are created it makes one think. Let us say that the sun is in the left panel, because god shines light on those that are close to him. This would create little to no shadow. Then the middle panel a further away from the sun would get shadows because the sun is not directly above it. Then the panel on the right, furthest away from the sun, would get the most shadow. This shows a slow progression of the people turning away from god. 

One symbol that was used in the painting was a Jesus figure. In the left and the center panel there is a Jesus figure in the clouds, the third panel does not have a Jesus figure. The first panel includes a simplistic blurry and dull colored figure. This represents the humility and simplistic implications that the church started with. The people wanted a place to worship their God without distractions and this is what they did. However, as time progressed people began to build these churches that served less as a place to worship and more of as a place to idolize god and religion. They had fancy stained glass windows, gold crosses, and articulated architecture. But just because these places were expensive did not mean they were more meaningful. People focused more on what was around them and less on the teaching of God and Jesus. This is why the Jesus figure in the center panel is very clear and colorful but the people in the painting are still chaotic and dark. The panel on the right contains no Jesus figure because the people have moved away from religion and God. 

Hieronymus Bosch painted The Last Judgement as a timeline of how religion will change throughout time. Based off of his prediction we can assume that Bosch had a negative view on human nature. He believed that mankind would ruin something good and pure. This insight is important because most people assume that a negative view on human nature is a modern idea, but if someone had this idea back in 1482 we can see that this viewpoint has always been prominent in people. If this idea has always been around we can assume that there is a strong case that it may, sadly, be true. Thus a need for people to better themselves and the people around them to provide a better society and a positive outlook on humans as a whole. 

