IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 1732: Imperium Mundi: Designing Empires, III

Thursday 10 July 2014, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	Department of History of Art, University of York
Organiser:	Jane Hawkes, Department of History of Art, University of York
Moderator/Chair:	Meg Boulton, Independent Scholar
Paper 1732-a	To Harrow Hell or Not to Harrow Hell: That is the Question - Jonah and the Ketos in the Sculpture of Early Christian Scotland (Language: English) Liz Alexander, Department of History of Art, University of York Index terms: Art History - General, Art History - Sculpture, Biblical Studies, Mentalities
Paper 1732-b	Down the Road to Hell: Revisiting the Kingdom of the Damned in Anglo-Saxon Sculpture (Language: English) Jane Hawkes, Department of History of Art, University of York Index terms: Art History - Sculpture, Biblical Studies, Liturgy, Theology
Paper 1732-c	Down There: The Architecture of Hell in Old English Poetry (Language: English) Michael Bintley, Department of English & Language Studies, Canterbury Christ Church University Index terms: Architecture - General, Biblical Studies, Language and Literature - Old English
Abstract	This is the third session in a series investigating the 'Empires' structuring the medieval Christian world. In Christian cosmology earthly empires were caught between two polar Kingdoms which each promised eschatological dominion. This session explores the Kingdom of Hell, governed by Lucifer, considering the influence of this potent site on the human imagination. No place was more terrible in the Christian imagination, no rule more dreaded. This session explores this nightmarish kingdom through literary and material evidence, how it was encountered and conceptualised, given its ultimate identity as the anti-empire in the face of ideal rulership, either earthly or heavenly.