Infernal Tortures : Apocalypse of Saint John

On several pages of this manuscript of the Apocalypse of St. John dating from the 14th century, the illuminations detail the suffering that awaits humanity at the end of time, testifying to the way in which the fear of Hell gave birth to dreadful images of a terrible great power, likely to strengthen the religious zeal of believers. The demons are busy amputating, cutting, scalding, disembowelling… using on each victim the tools of their own trade, illustrating the biblical formula according to which the dead will be "judged each according to his works": thus the fisherman is drowned or the blacksmith struck with a sledgehammer on his anvil. They are represented in the form of hybrid creatures — hairy, ape-like, horned — between man and animal.téléchargeabl