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Heaven versus Hell: The vision Tnugdal and the voyage of the soul in search of salvation (12th century)

Adriana Zierer

Original title: Paraíso versus Inferno: a Visão de Túndalo e a Viagem Medieval em Busca da Salvação da Alma (séc. XII)

Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

Keywords: Heaven, Hell, Seven deadly sins, Tnugdal.

The Salvation in Middle Ages was connected to the idea of voyage. The medieval man saw himself as a voyager (homo viator), a walker between two worlds: the ephemerous earth, place of tentations and the Heaven, the kingdom of God and of celestials beings. If the individual suceeded in maintain his body pure, he would obtain the salvation, but if he failed his soul would be condemned with eternal chastiments in Hell or provisorial in the Purgatory. It was a medieval paradox the fact that the soul could only be saved by the body. Because this sentiment of guilt, broght by the Original Sin, the population usually searched for salvation by means of a voyage, for example the peregrinations to achieve the Saint Earth (Jerusalem). These displacements were insecures (bad trails, menace of robbery and of diseases) and seen as a form of salvation since the pilgrim never knew for sure if he would come back or not. He wanted to experience in his flesh what Christ and other martyrs had suffered. Another means of salvation was the isolation from the rest of society in search of a life connected to God, such as the hermits and monks did. Because of their despite for terrestrial pleasures and their lives consacrated in prayers and fastings to God, they were considered the purest in terrestrial society. The benedictine monks dedicated themselves to write Visions with the purpose of presenting the chastiments and pleasures of the souls in beyond. Their intention was to show to the people the correct rules of behavior to obtain the salvation. The exempla, such as the Vision of Tundalo, present the types of chastiments based on the seven capital sins, and the actions that should be performed to reach the Paradise: to give alms, to go to mass, to give riches to the Church and to avoid lust. Un common element from the Visions is the emphasis in the sensations of the five senses. For example, stink in Hell and perfume in Heaven. Tortures are explained by the use of darkness, screams and sorrows, in opposition to clarity, singing and happiness. In Iconography, with the Seven Deadly Sins, by Bosch, and The Final Jugdement, by Fra Angelico, the structure of the Visions is confirmed. The topos of the beyond, in the case of the Heaven, are characterized by an edenic landscape represented by gardens, chants, fountains, angels and leafy trees. Once in Hell, the geography presuppose some obstacles such as ways with narrow brigdes, boiling rivers, mountains, lakes of ice and monsters. Thus, the individual in Middle Ages wanted the salvation more for the fear of Hell than from the glories of the Heaven, and the human soul debated herself between the desire for the pleasures and the dread of the infernal abyss.

The Dante’s Inferno and the seventh circle symbology

Solange Ramos de ANDRADE and Daniel Lula COSTA

Original title: O Inferno de Dante e a simbologia do sétimo círculo

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

Keywords: Dante, Demons, Hell, Middle Ages, Violence.

The period between XI to XIII century was remarkable for the expansion of Christian hell. The belief in evil increased the fear of unknown and enabled the structure of a punitive hell. The poet, Dante Alighieri, made a geography for Christian hell, paradise and purgatory by means of collective representations of medieval man. We’ll use the concept of representation to discuss the symbolism of Dante’s inferno, focusing in the structure of its seventh circle, where the violent souls are punished.

The iconography of Hell in Medieval artistic tradition

Tamara QUÍRICO

Original title: A iconografia do Inferno na tradição artística medieval

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

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.

The simbolical representations of the Devil in Ramon Llull and Dante Alighieri (13th & 14th centuries)

Klítia Loureiro and Ziza Scaramussa

Original title: O Diabo e suas representações simbólicas em Ramon Llull e Dante Alighieri (séculos XIII e XIV)

Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

Keywords: Dante Alighieri, Devil, Hell, Midle Ages, Ramon Llull.

This article intents to recover the fundamentals elements of the conception of Devil and Hell in the medieval culture, particulary in the 13th and 14th century. We have analized the vision of the Devil and Hell discrived by Ramon Llull (1232-1316) in no Livro das Maravilhas (1288-1289), Doutrina para Crianças (1274-1276) and Livro dos Anjos (1274?-1283?), briefly comparing his conception with Dante Alighieri and his Divina Comédia (1307-1321).

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