Inferno

Giotto’s hell is a remarkable place. It seems to pour out of a lava pool from the foot of an enthroned Christ figure, who looms with stiff majesty above flanks of angels. The lava pool is a tangle of tortured bodies set against a dark background. Some are strung up like drying meat, other lie limply, like rags, and still others writhe in pain. Interspersed among them, we find teams of gray-blue demons, who prod and torment the hapless naked damned. There is also a hanging Judas. Elsewhere in the cycle, Judas appears, hook nosed, receiving a payoff for betrayal, with a shadowy demon coaxing him on. At the center of Giotto’s hell, we find an enormous and imposing Satan, one of the greatest monster’s in western art. Giotto’s Satan is a portly slate blue figure, with furry jowls and twisting horns. He is perched on a man-eating dragon, his feet are crushing other a cluster of bodies, and each outstretched hand holds another body. Most disturbingly, the lower half of a human body dangles from Satan’s mouth, forecasting Goya’s infamous black painting of Saturn Devouring his Son. Giotto’s Satan is king of cannibals, an unmovable mountain of cruelty whose round belly practically pulsates with the girth of previous fleshy meals. We want to ask you something - we are preparing update of DailyArt and we want to know your opinion about things. The survey has only 8 questions and it will take only 5 minutes of your time but it can has a massive impact on what we will do with DailyArt in the future. If you would like to help us, you will find the link to the survey below :) Thank you! - Zuzanna