The Gates of Hell

"The Gates of Hell" or "La Porte d'Enfer" is a sculpture created by French artist Auguste Rodin. It was commissioned in 1880 by the Directorate of Fine Arts for a Decorative Arts Museum; however, the sculpture was not finished by its due date in 1885 and the museum project eventually failed. Rodin kept the piece and continued to make additions and edits to it until his death in 1917.

I found this piece to be fascinating because everyone knows Rodin (whether they know it or not), but this piece is actually the grandfather of many of his most famous sculptures. He was inspired by many of the paintings I have discussed previously as well as medieval cathedrals, a few books, and the imagery in Dante's Inferno. A few of his more famous pieces include "The Thinker" (on top of the doors and center), "The Kiss" (removed by Rodin during editing so he could make it a full sculpture), and "Paolo and Francesca"(left door pane) who were lovers subjected to torment in the second level of Dante's hell. 

I love this sculpture because there is so much drama to it that a painting cannot convey. The way the figures seemed trapped in the doors and under such duress really makes the story seem much more real. The emotions that surround hell are more easily understood when there are very human-like, three dimensional faces in my opinion and that is accomplished for me in this sculpture.

The Last Judgement

This Michelangelo entitled "The Last Judgement" is an enormous fresco painted in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. It took four years to complete from 1536 to 1541and actually resides on the altar wall in the chapel. This is also where he painted his most famous fresco "The Creation of Adam" and he didn't even begin this work until twenty years into the project of painting the Sistine chapel. 

This image is one of the second coming of Jesus Christ and the final judgement God will bestow upon humanity. The fate of humans will depend on the judgement of Jesus and the congress of saints on each side of him. Depending on their judgement, a person's soul will either ascend to heaven or fall to hell, which can be seen on the bottom right. The painting was altered in 1564 by the church to cover all the nudity present as it was deemed "objectionable". Another interesting fact is that it appears as though Michelangelo painted himself into the fresco as St. Bartholomew, but after he was flayed to death. This is thought to represent how he didn't want to complete the fresco, but was forced to by the church. He was around 60 years old while he was creating it and for that time period he was considerably old. Unfortunately he felt powerless in his situation and therefore painted himself in such a position.

I found this fresco alluring because it is a Michelangelo in the Sistine chapel, but it is not the one that most think of. I also think it is one of his most important pieces because of where it is placed in the church. The altar is where everyone is facing during mass and he decided to place the image of the second coming there. I think the content really tells more than anything what he thought people should fixate on while in mass and that was the saving of their souls.

The Barque of Dante

This piece is entitled "The Barque of Dante" and was the first piece done by the French artist Eugene Delacroix. It currently resides in the Louvre in Paris and was installed there in 1822. The painting is based upon canto eight of Dante's Inferno, which describes the journey across the river Styx. In the background the City of the Dead can be seen shrouded in mist and smoke. In the foreground Dante is wearing a red scarf and seems afraid of what they will encounter. He also seems fearful of the figures in the water. Virgil is steadying him and seems to be very calm and collected. In the water lie tormented souls damned to guard hell from those crossing the Styx.

What drew me to this artwork was that it is actually the inspiration for another piece I was looking at (The Gates of Hell), and I wanted to see how they related. I also have been looking at the Neo-Classical and Romantic paintings done on hell and/or based on Dante's Inferno and this is one of the few that is this close to the protagonist. Here you can connect with Dante and see the emotion he is projected, whereas in others the focus was more on the enormity, awe, chaos, and fear that was hell.

The Gates of Paradise

"The Gates of Paradise" are gold-plated bronze panels placed on the main doors to the Baptistery of San Giovanni that were actually unnamed until Michelangelo likened them to the gates guarding paradise and the name stuck. They were sculpted by Lorenzo Ghiberti, an Italian Renaissance artist and they were installed in 1452. The doors have withstood everything from the growing pollen levels to floods and were finally restored in 1990. It took a full 18 years to completely restore them, but they are now back to their former glory thanks to innovative new laser techniques developed in the 90s.

The panels themselves tell stories from the Bible. From top left to right they are Genesis, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Issac, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, and Solomon. My favorite reliefs were the first four, so I researched those in more detail. "Genesis" depicts the formation of Adam and Eve, then the temptation, and finally in the far corner the shame they felt naked in the presence of God. "Cain and Abel" shows the brothers praying together and working the fields. In the center of the plaque Cain slays Abel and at the right end he is punished by God. "Noah" is surprising because he actually isn't shown in the ark; instead he is seen naked in front of others and then praying to God on the right. This is telling the story of Noah getting drunk in front of his children and them feeling ashamed or him, which they are not supposed to. "Abraham" is fairly simple and straightforward, like the story, and is seen begging with the angels and then nearly killing his son on the mountaintop before being stopped by God.

What I found most interesting about this was the attention to detail spent on the stories. Every single moment in the story was captured somehow in the small square panels, whether it was in the foreground or background.

Dante and Virgil Meeting in Hell

This painting was done in the 19th century by a French painter named Gustave Dore. He actually painted for children's books and poetry collections and this was a piece of work he was commissioned for that was to go on the cover of a publication of Dante's Inferno. 

What really drew me to this picture is that I wanted it to introduce a series of artwork I want to look at regarding the devil and hell. It is something that is a relatively new installment to Christianity and has fascinated Christians to no end. The concepts behind hell is so vague yet alluring that I wanted to look at artwork that was created in an effort for humans to explain to one another what it is exactly. Satan is also a character that doesn't seem to be well defined in the Bible itself and instead is found more in Apocrypha texts. I have read Dante's Inferno before and can only imagine this to be somewhere around the second level of hell in which the lovers are entwined in each other in a fiery tornado. The tornado leads down to the lowest level of hell where Satan resides with who Dante found to be the evilest of men - the men that plotted to kill Caesar and Judas. I therefore found this to be an appropriate picture to lead into the discussion of Satan and hell.

Satan : Le Péché : La Mort

This painting, titled "Satan and Death with Sin Interfering" or "Satan : Le Péché : La Mort" in German, was painted by John Henry Fuseli, or Johann Heinrich Fussli in Germany. He painted this in 1779 after a lifetime of immigrating.

Fussli was originally born in Switzerland the second of eighteen and was always intended for the church. His father had produced many writings on the Christian painters of the day and because of this expected his firstborn son to attain the same level of fame as those that he wrote about. Fussli failed his father's dream when he outed a corrupt magistrate and was expelled from Switzerland. After a pilgrimage to Italy he changed his name to Fuseli began painting Christian-inspired artwork. He felt slighted and disillusioned by the large religion, so he began painting with Satan and nightmare-ish creatures as his subjects.

This painting depicts Satan and Death collaborating over what to do with human souls and in between them is Sin, which can be seen in the woman with the green snake. This painting is meant to be dark and evil in nature, with the hope found in the Sin. I think that was unexpected by me because I usually don't think of sin as a good idea, but in this picture it is the only thing that can redeem humans from their hellish fate. Fuseli often saw humans as perpetually doomed until they are redeemed by the absolving of their sins and for that reason actually found comfort in this picture.

Samaritan Woman at the Well

This painting is called "Samaritan Woman at the Well" and was created during the T'ang dynasty between 618 and 907 CE by an unknown artist for the court. During this time China was extremely open to foreigners and received many Christians. Because of the Christian influence in this region that was concentrated due to this openness, some citizens of the Chinese nation were converted and produced works of art like this.

The reason I found this interesting is because I've always seen Christianity as a very Western religion that had little to no influence on the Far East until as late as the 20th century or so. To learn about paintings that have been around for this long makes sense, what with the spice trade, but I just hadn't ever thought of the spread as going that quickly.