Listen to the song painted on a man’s butt in The Garden of Earthly Delights

Detail from “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch. Between 1490 and 1510. (Photo: via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights is one of the most recognizable paintings in the world, thanks to the artist’s incorporation of unique aesthetics, eerie characters, and remarkable depth. The work is an oil painting in triptych form depicting the Garden of Eden, Paradise, and Hell. The detailed artwork is full of small elements that are often overlooked at first glance, and one particular YouTube video delves into one of those hidden details – a musical score carefully printed on the buttocks of a tortured man.

The sheet music is found in the bottom left of the third panel of the painting depicting sinners in hell. The scene centers on a man lying flat on the ground being crushed by a giant lute. A large, toad-like demon extends its barbed tongue toward the region where the notes are engraved – a unique eternal punishment that makes one wonder what exactly he did in life to deserve it.

The music was originally transcribed and recorded in 2014 by a blogger named Amelia, who was kind enough to provide a piano recording of her playing. Despite the painting’s somber subject matter, the song doesn’t sound all that haunting. This may be because the song is written in C, which was a common key for 14th and 15th century chant when Bosch painted the piece. Instead, the music sounds almost soothing at certain points, which makes Bosch’s recording all the more surprising.

Are you ready to hear this unusual backside music? Click here to start the video.

h/t: (Open Culture)

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