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Chapter 11 - ‘Eye Hath not Seen … which Things God Hath Prepared …’: Imagining Heaven and Hell in Romanesque and Gothic Art

from Part III - Artistic Impressions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2020

By
Adam R. Stead
Edited by
Richard Matthew Pollard
Richard Matthew Pollard
Affiliation:
Université du Québec à Montréal
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Summary

Focusing on select examples of monumental art and manuscript illumination, this chapter examines key iconographic themes, visual strategies, and changes in artistic representations of heaven and hell in the Romanesque and gothic periods.In particular, it investigates how medieval artists and their patrons drew variously on scripture, theology, and exegesis to craft images of the afterlife that functioned complexly within the specific historical, cultural, and social contexts in which they were created.Emphasis also lies on the ways that these visual representations of heaven and hell, though often rooted in textual sources, constituted a distinct form of speculation on the afterlife.Seen both individually and together, the works discussed here reveal the central and enduring contribution of art in shaping medieval conceptions of the hereafter.

Keywords

Iconography of heavenIconography of hellLast JudgementHeavenly JerusalemApocalypse illustrationVisio Paulipurgatorybeatific visionRomanesque artgothic art
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Chapter
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Imagining the Medieval Afterlife , pp. 193 - 222
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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