Hieronymous Bosch, “Third Day of Creation,” (c. 1490-1510). Bosch was a proto-surrealist oil painter from the Medieval Netherlands with a wonderfully twisted imagination. This painting represents the world as he imagined it before the creation of animals. Here, the color scheme (typical for the exterior of tryptichs, which this was) brings out the drabness of the still-forming world, which looks like a sort of glass-bubble terrarium, with clouds at the top and waters surrounding the land. If you look at the top left corner, you can see God, all alone in outer space, holding a book on his lap as he creates the world.
