Bosch: Ears with Knife and Torture Details Figurine

This hand-painted Bosch figurine, Ears with Knife and Torture Details, is from Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Two enormous ears, held together by an arrow and a knife jammed in between. Is there an allegorical mediaeval symbolism behind this, or are the horrible tortures one might expect in hell pictured here once more? Is the monogram on the knife an M of the B of Bosch? Maybe we will never know what Bosch had between his ears when he was painting this picture.

This Bosch figurine is one of many available from the National Gallery.