Conference: The Place of Hell. Topographies, Structures, Genealogies

The conference is being held at The Warburg Institute, Woburn Square London WC1H 0AB (31 May) and King's College London, Stamford St London SE1 8WA (1 June).

It is part of the Leverhulme International Network Project Damned in Hell in the Frescoes of Venetian-Dominated Crete (13th- 17th centuries) managed by Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou (Open University) and Prof. Vassiliki Tsamakda (University of Mainz).

Overview: 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.

See www.open.ac.uk/arts/damned-in-hell/conferences.shtml for more details.

For practical information, please contact Dr Diana Newall: Diana.Newall@open.ac.uk