> Well, I am interested on the development of Devil's iconography in
>western art; as far as I know, the ugly, furry, bestial devil is difficult
>to find until the 10th century; some scholars have a theory for this fact:
>Devil became a crucial figure when the first Last Judgement programs appear
>at the edge of the year 1000;
what's the earliest example of a Last Judgment program?
>the second question is: why Last Judgment
>iconography appears now?, and here comes the millenarist theory: when
>everybody is thinking on "the final countdown", artists are compelled to
>put in images what until this time was only known through the word.
my guess is that it comes in the aftermath of 1000, and relates to mutations
in thinking about the end that are forced by the non-eschatological passage
of an eschatological date.
>This is
>what made me put my query on the list. [Nevertheless, the Last Judgment
>iconography became "popular" only in Gothic Art, but this is another question]
are you aware that *the* historian of the millennium, rodulfus glaber has an
elaborate depiction of the devil in his *quinque libri historiarum* (book 5,
chapter 2, written ca. 1040)? he's exactly a bestial, ugly, furry creature.
but i don't think this is the first time such a notion appeared. what are
your secondary sources claiming this?
rlandes
Richard Landes
Boston University
History Department
617-353-2558 History office
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Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University
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