Conference Theme: A belief in Hell has been a staple of Christian thought from the earliest period of this religion. The depiction of Hell and its denizens – the devil, demons and the punished sinners – has an equally long history going back to at least the sixth century. From the eleventh century onwards, images of Hell become proliferate and more detailed in their presentation of the damned and their torments – in parallel to such texts as the popular Apocalypse of the Virgin. Artists come up with different solutions in picturing the various torments inflicted upon the sinners as well as the places where these torments take place. In the art of the late Byzantine period and the late medieval west, the various figures of the damned are presented with inscriptions detailing the crimes and sins for which they are being punished. In western Europe, literary texts add detail to the vision of Hell as well, starting with the 11th-century Vision of Tondal and culminating in Dante’s Divine Comedy. The images as well as the texts that we assume they are illustrating offer a rich field for research. Questions of iconography as well as the exploration of social meanings attached to these powerful representations present themselves. The exploration of developments within the body of texts on and depictions of Hell can be particularly fruitful. The aim of this conference is to explore the place Hell occupied within society and art as well as the way Hell was envisaged as a physical place.
The Speakers will be Jenny Albani, (Open University of Greece), Asya Bereznyak, (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Brendan Cassidy, (University of St Andrews), Chiara Franceschini, (Warburg Institute), Theresa Holler, (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence), Dimitra Kotoula, (International Centre for Hellenic and Mediterranean Studies), Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe, (King’s College, London), Dimitra Mastoraki, (University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne), Ioanna Rapti, (King’s College, London), Alessandro Scafi, (Warburg Institute), Luigi Silvano, (University of Rome La Sapienza), Allie Terry-Fritsch, (Bowling Green State University) and Peter Tóth, (Warburg Institute). Topics will include early Christian Descent Stories, Dante’s Hell, Strategies for Salvation, Judas in Hell and representations of hell in Crete, Greece and Italy.
To register, go to the conference event page and follow the instructions to register and print your ticket: [http://theplaceofhell.eventbrite.co.uk/#]
Conference Programme and Abstracts [PDF, 189 KB]
You can download the conference poster in PDF format [4 MB]
For more information about this conference or the registration process, please contact Diana Newall on Diana.Newall@open.ac.uk.
The concept of sins and their punishment in the after-life is closely associated with certain cultures and/or religions especially Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The fear of the consequences of sinful behaviour was a welcome tool for teaching and of control in the hands of religious leaders, who further reshaped the concept of sin. The conference aims to highlight and explore various aspects of the topic based on written and visual sources. One of the main issues considered is to identify the nature of sin within these cultures and religions and what forms a punishable sin after death. As well as exploring the ways in which sinners and punishments are described and represented in words and images, another point to be addressed is the extent of the socio-historical value of the available texts and illustrations. The focus of interest is on the sources of the Mediterranean region. Christianity provides the main reference point for exploring the material since its emergence post-dates that of Judaism and predates that of Islam. As this conference forms the sixth and final workshop within the parameters of the Leverhulme International Network Team, which since 2010 has been working on a project assessing the representations of hell in frescoes of Venetian-dominated Crete (13th-17th centuries), it also includes a presentation of the initial results of the members’ ongoing research.
Conference programme [PDF, 610 KB]
Full details and registration requirements available soon. If you wish to contact the team regarding this conference, please email Diana.Newall@open.ac.uk
