‘The Damned Swallowed by a Hellmouth’, from “Winchester Psalter&rd
‘The Damned Swallowed by a Hellmouth’, from “Winchester Psalter” (or “Psalter of Henry of Blois”), 1220-29“In this Psalter, Hell is personified as a demonic monster, physically torturing and devouring damned souls. Images likes these, which showed the consequences of an un-Christian life, were often used to graphically illustrate Christian teachings.”Source: https://www.bl.uk/the-middle-ages/articles/medieval-monsters-from-the-mystical-to-the-demonic“Traditionally called the 'St Swithun Psalter’ because it contains a prayer to the saint, this psalter’s origins can be placed at Winchester, probably at the Cathedral Priory, which is dedicated to him. It is beautifully illustrated with a series of full-page tinted drawings which probably reflect the tastes and high social status of Hugh of Blois, Bishop of Winchester (1129-1171), patron of the arts, and brother of King Stephen. Hugh had been a monk at Cluny where sumptuous visual art abounded. The psalter, though, was made in England, having some details which relate back to 11th Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. Hugh of Blois may have used it as a prayerbook either privately or during the daily monastic prayers called the divine office.Most of the full-page pictures are divided into two or more panels. This one, however, has a single unified image of the mouth of Hell. Formed of the maws of two hideous, gigantic monsters, it swirls with the chaotic figures of the damned, including kings and a queen wearing only their crowns and a tonsured monk, as well as young and old, male and female. They are tortured by slimy, hairy demons, while an angel locks the door in the border with a large key, a feature seen in an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon picture of hell.”Source: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/cottmanucoll/t/011cotnerc00004u00039000.html -- source link
#winchester psalter#hellmouth#damned#illuminated manuscript#english artists