Hell in the Byzantine World: A History of Art and Religion in Venetian Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean. Volume 1: Essays & Volume 2: A Catalogue of the Cretan Material

by: Lymberopoulou, A.

The imagery of Hell, the Christian account of the permanent destinations of the human soul after death, has fascinated people over the centuries since the emergence of the Christian faith. These landmark volumes provide the first large-scale investigation of this imagery found across the Byzantine and post-Byzantine world. Particular emphasis is placed on images from churches across Venetian Crete, which are comprehensively collected and published for the first time. Crete was at the centre of artistic production in the late Byzantine world and beyond and its imagery was highly influential on traditions in other regions. The Cretan examples accompany rich comparative material from the wider Mediterranean – Cappadocia, Macedonia, the Peloponnese and Cyprus. The large amount of data presented in this publication highlight Hell's emergence in monumental painting not as a concrete array of images, but as a diversified mirroring of social perceptions of sin.

Adopts an interdisciplinary approach to a cultural and religious subject of high relevance to the history of Christianity
Includes a large amount of unpublished material and material which is very difficult to access
Testifies to the richness and diversity of Byzantine art and presents new aspects of the society that commissioned and created it

Table of Contents
Volume 1: Introduction Angeliki Lymberopoulou and Eirini Panou
Part I: Crete
1. From Crete to Hell: The Textual Tradition on Punishments in the Afterlife and the Writings of Joseph Bryennios on Crete Dionysios Stathakopoulos
2. Venetian Crete: The Historical Context Charalambos Gasparis
3. Hell on Crete Angeliki Lymberopoulou
4. Hell from West to East: Western Resonances in Cretan Wall Painting Rembrandt Duits
Part II: Eastern Mediterranean
5. 'When the visual order was established': The Last Judgement and Punishments in Hell in Byzantine Cappadocia Rainer Warland
6. Damned in Hell, damned in the Church: Imagery and Space in Byzantium Athanasios Semoglou
7. Images of Hell and the Afterlife in the Churches of Lakonia Sharon Gerstel and Panayiotis S. Katsafados
8. Hell in the Sweet Land: Hell's Place in the Last Judgements of Byzantine and Medieval Cyprus Annemarie Weyl Carr. Volume 2: Introduction Rembrandt Duits
I. Chania (nos 1-47)
II. Rethymnon (nos 48-73)
III. Herakleion (nos 74-92)
IV
Lassithi (nos 93-107)
V. Chronological Arrangement of Cretan Churches.

Hell in the Byzantine World: A History of Art and Religion in Venetian Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean. Volume 1: Essays & Volume 2: A Catalogue of the Cretan Material

by: Lymberopoulou, A.

• ISBN-13: 9781108690706 / 978-1-108-69070-6
• ISBN-03: 110869070X / 1-108-69070-X
• Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2020