Despite its lush and lustful depictions of a prelapsarian world and the myriad temptations of the flesh, the most arresting part of Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights appears to be the final panel of the famous triptych, in which pleasure’s price is paid, excruciatingly and inventively, for all eternity.

According to new research commissioned by Madrid’s Prado museum, where Bosch’s masterpiece has hung for almost a century, visitors’ eyes are most drawn to the hell panel where sinning flesh is pierced, processed and punished.

A team from the Miguel Hernández University used special glasses to track the eye movements and responses of 52 people who visited the painting. The researchers found that the visitors spent an average of 16 seconds a sq metre studying the lefthand panel, which shows the Garden of Eden, 26 seconds a sq metre studying the eponymous central garden, and 33.2 seconds a sq metre studying the hell panel.

[Or at least this confirms that we’re all secretly worried about the prospect. — Ed]