Dear all:
Medieval Welsh religious texts like to emphasise the iciness (?icyness
?extreme cold) of Hell, which they also called a marsh.
So too Dante, of course; but did these medieval images of Hell derive in
part from classical descriptions of the underworld, and if so, who first
appropriated them
Hwyl i bawb,
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of John Hall
Sent: 02 January 2001 13:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The "Hell Mouth" in medieval art & architecture.
John A W Lock wrote:
> A (comparatively) recent example was the set done by Ralph Steadman for
> the English National Opera's production of "Orpheus in the Underworld" in
> which entrance to Hades was obtained by passing through the guard dog
> Cerberus' mouth (well, one of them)and out through his bottom. I thought
it
> wonderfully original at the time but perhaps this is where he got the idea
> from?
Jacques Combe (Paris 1946) believed Bosch's figure with the Nightjar's head
(not Nightmare as my spell checker made it!) to have been the Satan of the
Witches revels
sitting on his throne. He identified the figure as the Devil because he had
both feet in jugs.
In a fragment of a Last Judgement in the Pinacothek in Munich Bosch paints a
similar figure of the Devil with his back to the observer leaning back and
swallowing a body head first with only the legs visible.
John Hall
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