Horrific scenes of torture and violence - limbs ripped off, red-hot pokers stuck up bottoms, the next victims looking on, weeping and biting their nails -
All this is painted, much bigger than life size and in minute detail, inside the dome of the cathedral in Florence. The tortures seem to be the exact sort of thing that people in the 15th century would have heard about, except that huge frightening devils are inflicting them.

They are very explicit, with for example the aforementioned hot poker being inserted into the sinner's jacksy while the torturing devil lifts him by an ankle. As the victims are naked, we can tell this one is a bloke because his privates dangle in our faces.

Above it is represented Purgatory and at the top is Heaven, with the saints and angels.
But it's Hell that caught my eye. Just imagine being at church back when it was painted, and your attention wanders, and you glance up, and see... Hell!
You might want to close your eyes again and pray that bit harder.

These paintings might be the best thing I've ever seen, in terms of shock value anyway. Their message was clear - in the 15th century, you believed in God and behaved, or else!

If you're ever in the area, pop in and scare yourself. It's not expensive and you can get quite close if you don't mind climbing up the narrow stairs.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Sat 9 Apr 2011, 15:47, 2 replies)

Eek!
Reminds me of the painting of Hieronymous Bosch. Not sure if I got the spelling right there. But his painting of hell... ooh now the details of hell there are creepy. Just the demons and the acts and the symbolism which is so blatantly meant to be something horrific. +shudder+ Christianity is pretty creepy.
( Bathory, Sat 9 Apr 2011, 15:50, closed)

Oh yes, I love Bosch too
and I found the Florence murals very reminiscent of his work. The Florence ones concentrate more on the victims' terror though, which Bosch doesn't dwell on.

They have some Bosch paintings in the Doge's palace in Venice, which I also enjoyed very much. The weirder the better, is how I like it!
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Sat 9 Apr 2011, 15:55, closed)