IMC 2008: Sessions
Session 1514: Imaginary Landscapes of the Afterlife in 15th-Century Spanish Manuscripts
Thursday 10 July 2008, 09.00-10.30
| Sponsor: | Departamento de Historia del Arte III, Universidad Complutense de Madrid |
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| Organiser: | Virginia de la Cruz Lichet, Departamento de Historia del Arte III, Universidad Complutense de Madrid |
| Moderator/Chair: | Virginia de la Cruz Lichet, Departamento de Historia del Arte III, Universidad Complutense de Madrid |
| Paper 1514-a | Hell on the Page: Infernal Landscapes in 15th-Century Spanish Illuminated Manuscripts (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - General, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Mentalities, Theology |
| Paper 1514-c | La representación del Paraíso en las miniaturas de los beatos españoles (Language: Español) Index terms: Art History - General, Liturgy, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Theology |
| Abstract | In the Middle Ages the afterlife is established as a parallel world that imitates the earthly landscapes. The miniatures that illustrate the Spanish manuscripts represent an afterlife where the nature is protagonist of this eschatological geography. Landscapes such as frozen and volcanic deserts, with its respective climatic changes, and celestial spaces formed a world composed of mountains, rivers, gardens, deserts, but also a series of animals, real and imaginary, that populated them. This way, the topography of the afterlife will be shaped following a vertical design: Hell is seen as an abysm dwelled by screams and laments, or as a sea of endless fire; Purgatory is represented like an intermediate place with the hope of the salvation; and finally (at the top of the scale) Paradise is described as a delightful garden or forest, the evocation of happiness in a blessed nature. |