The oldest mention of the painting is in a 1659 inventory of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria's collection, as by "Hieronimo Bosz".

Dendrochronologic analysis proved that the painting was executed not before 1482[2] There is copy of the work, attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder, in the Gemäldegalerie of Berlin.

One of the characters in the latter panel, the old woman with a child, appears in a drawing attributed to Bosch, now in a San Francisco private collection.

[2] The left panel depicts the Garden of Eden of biblical history, as a green landscape in the lower three-quarters.

In the upper section Bosch portrays God sitting on his throne, surrounded by a luminous halo.

The punishments come from monstrous creatures of Hell: the damned are burned, speared, impaled, hung from butcher hooks, forced to eat impure food (the Gluttonous), or subjects to cogs of bizarre machines.