Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Session I: Texts
Chair: 11.40 12.20 Dionysios Stathakopoulos Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe (Kings College, London): Womb, Belly, and Tomb. The Look and Feel of Hell in early Christian Descent Stories Asya Bereznyak (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Hellish Rhetoric and Rhetoric of Hell. Eastern and Western Missionary Representations, Uses and Appropriations of Hell Lunch Rembrandt Duits Luigi Silvano (University of Rome La Sapienza): Betwixt Hell and Heaven. The Strange Case of Philentolos Peter Tth (Warburg Institute): ...And SHE descended into Hell. An Unknown Latin Translation of the Greek Apocalypse of the Virgin Tea Alessandro Scafi (Warburg Institute): The Physicality of Dantes Souls in Hell Theresa Holler (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence): Place of No Return. Dantes devilish Landscape and the Artistic Eye Conclusion
Reception and dinner for Leverhulme Project team-members and conference speakers
12.30
3.
Asya Bereznyak, Hellish Rhetoric and Rhetoric of Hell: Eastern and Western Missionary Representations, Uses and Appropriations of Hell
Hell as a place, as a concept, as a place of sinners and unbelievers is usually examined in the context of the later Middle Ages. Indeed, the notion of Hell as we know it was not yet fully formed in the earlier Middle Ages - yet I would argue that it was precisely in that period when the seeds of profound differences between Eastern and Western notions of Hell were sown. My paper will therefore address the origins and formation of the different notions of Hell in the Earlier Middle Ages (9th-11th centuries). I would argue that in order to understand late medieval concepts of Hell as a place and its functions in believers worldviews, we must first examine what shaped these notions and what accounts for the differences between Eastern and Western ideas of Hell. To understand what shaped the notions of Hell, we must turn to missionary attitudes, and examine the profound influence of missionary rhetoric on the place Hell had in the faith of Eastern and Western Christians. By looking at the manner in which Eastern and Western missionaries understood Hell and presented it to neophytes, and by analysing the differences in their approaches, this paper will attempt to shed a new light on the formation of the later notions of Hell. It will also be suggested that it was the overall difference of attitude of the Byzantine and Western missionaries to the missionary endeavour that accounts for the different manner in which they chose to use the notions of Hell, and that these differences had, in turn, a vast influence on the manner in which Hell was conceived of during the later Middle Ages. 4
Luigi Silvano, Betwixt Hell and Heaven: the strange case of Philentolos
In 1945 F. Halkin published a short text pertaining to the genre of the historiai psychopheleis (edifying tales) that narrates the story of Philentolos, a rich man from Cyprus who was at the same time both a relentless benefactor and almsgiver, and an unrepented fornicator. When he died in old age, a dispute arose among the local clergy whether he should have been saved due to his philanthopy, or damned due to his reiterated sins; as the bishops and monks were unable to find an answer, they asked a sacred hermit for advice. The hermit was sent a vision in which he saw Philentolos physically standing in a place in the middle between the beauties of heaven and the flames of hell, being unharmed by the latter, but also banned from the former. As Philentolos was complaining of his own fate, an angel came and explained to him the reasons for such an eternal chastisement. This vision provides an unicum in Byzantine depictions of the other world, and has apparently no strict parallels also in Latin theological thought: the unmarked place where Philentolos is standing apparently alone does not resemble either Purgatory or the socalled limbus puerorum. Instead, as Costas Kyrris first noticed, it may resemble the Al Araf (diaphragm) mentioned in the Quran, a zone reputed to contain the souls of those dead people who did not deserve either Paradise or Hell. My paper will first give a survey of the several extant versions of the text (and especially those recorded in BHG 1322x-y, so far unpublished, of which I am preparing an edition); I will then attempt to sketch a reconsideration of the meaning of this story, its background, and its diffusion, addressing issues such as possible sources and parallels in the literary and theological writings of the Medieval Eastern and Western Mediterranean.
Peter Tth, ...And SHE descended into Hell An Unknown Latin Translation of the Greek Apocalypse of the Virgin
The most important Christian accounts of and guides to the netherworld before Dantes Divina Commedia were furnished by different apocryphal visions attributed to such authorities of Christianity as the Apostle Paul or different saints and holy men from Macarius of Egypt to St. Patrick or the Byzantine Basil the Younger. Of all these descriptions of the hell and the fate of the dead it was the so-called Apocalypse of Paul which was regarded as the earliest and probably the most popular and authoritative version serving as a literary model and also as a framework for later reworkings and discussions. In addition to this widely known apocryphon, however, there existed another even more detailed visionary description of the Christian hell which was placed in the framework of a visit of the Holy Virgin to the netherwold. In the course of this narrative the Virgin, just like Paul in the Apocalypse under his name, is guided in her travels throughout hell by the Archangel Michael and she is also introduced to the different torments of hell which are even more elaborated here than in the earlier Pauline account. However, there is an important element in the Virgins visit to the hell which separates it from the Apocalypse of Paul, that as an ultimate proof of the Virgins parrhesia to Christ in order to provide some comfort for the suffering sinners her intercession has persuaded Christ to suspend the torments of hell for the period between the resurrection and Pentecost. This characteristically Byzantine description of the netherworld which was so wide-spread and popular in the Greek as well as in the Slavonic tradition is usually considered to be completely unknown in the Western tradition. However, in two late fourteenth century manuscripts I managed to find a complete but still unrecorded Latin translation of the 5
Virgins descent to the hell added to a particular version of the Apocalypse of Paul. The present paper aims at a presentation of the Latin text of the Virgins Apocalypse considering the different characteristics of the language of the translation and thus trying to formulate some conclusions about the possible date and purpose of the Latin version of this medieval Greek apocryphon.
Theresa Holler, Place of No Return Dantes Devilish Landscape and the Artistic Eye
In the Comedy, the authors spatial conception of the afterworld becomes a realistic landscape not only for the pilgrim Dante but also for the reader. His journey through the literary space finds its counterpart in a new artistic approach to visualize the other world. Depictions of hell in scenes of the Last Judgment shift from a chaotic space or an artificial one created by registers to an elaborated locus, defined by rocks. Following the circulation of the Comedy, this parallel development presents itself in Florentine and Tuscan art as well as in northern Italy, while we find little of this development north of the Alps. Dante as a literary source serves and stimulates artists to experiment with the conception of space and gives them a textual imagination for their own pictorial images. In my paper I would like to emphasize both how this new artistic invention in trecento art adopted this poetological concept, combining it with theological thought, and how Dante himself creates this physical world. Matters of perspective and humanization of the afterlife will be considered in the text as well as in the images.
Dimitra Mastoraki, Judas in Hell: The iconography and the didactic power of the image in the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine art. Similarities and differences with the western iconography
Judas Iscariot the perfidious disciple occupies an almost permanent place in the Byzantine representations of Hell. In the frame of this paper we will try to examine these images of the Judas afterlife damnation in relation with the texts and also with the western medieval iconography in order to point out, through the differences and the eventual similarities the special features of the Byzantine iconography of the theme. In the most of images the Devil depicted as an old bearded man mounting a monster holds a small figure of a naked child on his lap that in some late Cretan frescoes is identified with Judas. It is evident that Judas is placed under the protection of the Hells Prince. The idea seems to be stressed of the Saint Johns Theologians church in the Cretan village Asphentiles (second half of 14th c.) where Satan and Judas are stroking each other cheeks tenderly as a depraved replica of the Virgin Glykophiloussas image. The rare representations that deviate from the dominant iconographic model in which Iscariot, weaned from the Satans 6
protective bosom, floats in the pool of fire with the other sinners are of special interest. For instance, we can mention the Kari kilise fresco (Cappadocia, 1212) where Judas assumes the role of the guardian angel for a special category of renegades or the Kremikovci churchs fresco (Bulgaria, end of 15th c.) where he floats in the fire next to some illustrious heresiarchs. Furthermore, special attention will be turned to some details as the one of the string around his neck in the Kari kilise that implicates his crime of suicide and gets this image close to several representations of the damned created in the Byzantine periphery or in a monastic environment in which the imposed punishment is in accordance with the committed crime. Afterwards, it is important to considerate the edifying function of the Judass images in Hell as a part of the moralizing rhetoric of the Church. The comfortable bosom of Devil may assure him a privileged place in Hell but it definitely deprives him from the eternal divine light. Moreover the constant warnings of the Church Fathers about the damnation of all Judass imitators and also the study of the epigraphic evidence of Christian tombs where we find the curse of Judas addressed to the tomb profaners reinforces the opinion that the end of Iscariot serves as a warning for the impious about their destiny afterlife. In other cases can be targeted a special group of sinners as it is the case of the the Kari kilise fresco where the indication of the suicide as the principal reason of Judass damnation constitutes an indirect warning to all those who search by the suicide to avoid the human and divine justice contesting that way the salutary grace of God. In conclusion it becomes obvious that the Iscariots figure raised to a symbol of all the rebellious voices against the Christian authority participates paradoxically, by his images in Hell, in its moralizing rhetoric. The subversive figure of Judas seems to be definitely tamed by the religious authority who transforms him in an ultimate defender of the faith that he has renounced.
Dimitra Kotoula, Strategies for salvation: structuring and populating Hell in Byzantine private burial chapels (13th -15th c.)
The aim of this paper is to examine representations of Hell in burial chapels that were founded between the 13th and the 15th centuries to function as places of burial and later commemoration. Byzantine and post-Byzantine material will be discussed in juxtaposition to similar imagery in the West. The analysis will focus on: the place of the scene in the layout and the iconographic programme of these buildings specific details in the iconography of the scenes, the structure of Hell as a physical place as well as the picturing of the damned and their various torments. What solutions did the artists invent to depict a theme described in various apocalyptic texts in the East and the West of which, however, we lack a standard reference textual source?
The purpose of this twofold analysis is to reveal the diverse layers of meaning that seem to permeate the scene as well as its function and symbolism in the burial chapel. How far punishment the main message of the scene was turned into a message of salvation in the iconography of specific variations? To what extent the social status and the religious and cultural background of the interred founders is reflected in the scenes? The examination of the issue aims to bring out the dynamism, the versatile ideas behind and the broader impact 7
of this almost protean scene that seems to have been used, in some cases, as a unique tool of visual propaganda.
Jenny Albani, , . Sins and Punishments in a Representation of the Last Judgment in the Church of St. John at Axos, Crete
Axos is a village of the Mylopotamos district, in the prefecture of Rethymnon on Crete. The Church of St. John the Baptist, situated in the cemetery of the village, is a single-aisle, barrelvaulted building, 10 m long and 5.10 m wide. Its painted decoration can be dated on stylistic criteria to around 1400. As is the norm in Cretan Late Byzantine churches, there is a multi register composition of the Last Judgment in the west part of the nave. In the bottom register of the western wall, to the right of the entrance door is the representation of Hell, which displays the damnation of the Sinners. Hell comprises 17 registers framed by red bands, on which inscriptions in white identify the subjects. The individual punishments of the damned refer to certain culpable sins that can give us an insight to the moral code of the middle Ages in Venetian Crete. It is well known that during its long history the Byzantine Empire was a society in which land and rural social relations were of great importance. Therefore, alongside the rural laws, the representation of the individual punishments of sinners in Hell, which are found only in churches of rural and monastic communities and not of urban centers, aimed, by visual means, to keep alive the rural laws and the moral standards in the every day life of the parish congregation, warning wrong-doers of their torments after death, and calming the wronged and the weak with the promise of the future administration of Justice.
Brendan Cassidy, Consigning Enemies to Hell: Images of Revenge & Defamation in Italian Art
This paper will examine images of hell in Italian Late-Medieval & Renaissance Art in which there are identifiable individuals or types of individual and consider the reasons why the artists and/or patrons thought they were suitable candidates for damnation.
Allie Terry-Fritsch, Hell on Earth: Criminal Viewers in the Chapel of the Magdalene in Florence
The tormented figures relegated to the fiery pits of Hell in Giottos Last Judgment in the Arena Chapel, c. 1305, once served as key references for late medieval and early modern beholders. As Andrew Ladis pointed out, the positions and gestures of these condemned souls point to the wit of Giotto, who knew how to inspire both terror and laughter from his audience. One can well imagine the patron, Enrico Scrovegni, taking solace in his portrayal on the side of Paradiso, away from the endless mockery of the sinners by rogue devils in the Inferno. Other visitors to the Arena Chapel looking upon the scene were invited to ridicule the condemned in hell and to laugh at their fates, since it was understood that their physical predicaments were a reflection of their sullied souls. Yet, Giotto painted another, more pressing scene of judgment, one that was looked upon by those very individuals who knew that life was near an endindividuals who had been convicted of crimes considered so heinous, that only the punishment of death would serve to cleanse the community of the crime committed. The scene, painted in the 1330s, is located within the Chapel dedicated to the Magdalene within the Palazzo del Podest in Florence (the building now generally known as the Bargello). Connected to a series of rooms 8
dedicated to criminal justice, including the courtroom and deliberation chambers of the Podest, or chief magistrate of Florence, the Chapel was used by convicted criminals and provided a space for the intense somatic exertion and spiritual reflection of the condemned in the hours leading up to penal justice. This paper examines the frescoes through the identity position of a late medieval criminal and seeks to understand the spiritual and judicial message of the pictorial cycle for this fourteenth-century viewing audience. The decoration is anchored through opposing scenes of Paradise with Christ in Judgment and Hell, while scenes from the life and legend of the Magdalene are situated across from scenes of St. John the Baptist. As this paper shall argue, the thematic focus on judgment and redemption within the pictorial cycle created a penitential visual narrative that was reinforced through the bodily engagement of the criminal in the act of penance itself. The frescoes not only served as illustrations of saintly deeds, but served as visual stimuli for the construction of the criminals assumed identity both within the chapel and beyond its doors, during the procession to the site of justice.