Taking in custody and Carrying the cross. The outer wings of the altar by Hieronymus Bosch

The left outer gate “Jesus’ Capture in the Garden of Gethsemane”. Right outer wing “Carrying the Cross”. The outer doors of the triptych “The Temptation of Saint Anthony” are made in grisaille technique.

They depict scenes of the Passion of Christ. While Judah hastily leaves the Garden of Gethsemane with thirty silversmiths, the temple guard and the servants of the high priest attacked Jesus as fiercely as the demons against Saint Anthony on the left wing of the triptych. The guards look triumphant.

The apostle Peter in the foreground raised his sword to cut off the ear of the slave who came with the soldiers. This and the subsequent scene depicting the Passion of Christ, written in a narrative manner and with dramatic details, contrast sharply with the esoteric fantasies of the inner flaps of the altar.

The composition “Carrying the Cross” with special force reveals the gift of Bosch to paint human passions. The gesture of a monk who professes a robber condemned to the execution is extraordinarily expressive. The face of the robber in the foreground on the left is full of despair. On the right is Jesus, who fell under the weight of the cross and stopped the procession moving toward Calvary; St. Veronica rushes to the Savior to wipe the sweat from his face.

The executioners bring this delay into a barely restrained fury, the inhabitants look at what is happening more likely with the curiosity of idle gapers than with compassion. Below the robbers confess to monks in cassocks in hoods, and Bosch skillfully conveys the repulsive appearance of these clerics.