Published in Paradise, Purgatory and Hell: the Religiosity in the Middle Ages

Keywords: Keywords: Hell, Iconography, Middle Ages, Visions of the Otherworld.

This article shall briefly discuss the elaboration of the visual representation of Hell – both in paintings as in plays –, as well as some of the most important iconographic elements of the theme. It is intended to show how Scriptural elements were associated to others of popular origin in order to create the iconography of the theme throughout medieval period. It must be considered that Hell forms Christian imaginary, being an essential part of one of the most important questions to Christianity: man’s fate after death and after the end of the world. Absorbing concepts and traditions alien to Christian religiosity, the iconography of Hell became one of the main elements to indoctrinate the faithful, when presented as an independent theme, but especially when it was associated to the broader representation of the Last Judgment.