Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileThe Damned at the Hellmouth
GER — BY — Oberpfalz — Regensburg — Dachauplatz 2-4 — 2. OG (Historisches Museum) — unbekannter Künstler — Armeseelen-Zyklus, 4. Bild (Die Verdammten am Höllenrachen) — um 1480 — Mattes 2022-02-24
About This Work
The composition is dominated by a gaping, cavernous maw resembling an animal head, from which orange flames and smoke emerge. Inside and around this opening, diverse demons with bestial features, tails, and horns engage in the torture of various nude men and women. One figure in the foreground, wearing a white wimple, is being driven forward by a creature with clawed feet and an animalistic face; other figures play backgammon or are shown in states of distress and despair. The background landscape includes smaller figures being herded towards the mouth of the beast under a dark, heavy sky.
This work is part of a late medieval 'Armeseelen' (Poor Souls) cycle, reflecting the intense focus on eschatological judgment and the physical reality of damnation prevalent in 15th-century German religious art. It draws upon the visual vocabulary of the 'Ars Moriendi' tradition and popular depictions of the 'Harrowing of Hell' and the 'Last Judgment'.