The Devil

Through paintings, sculpture, and the decorative arts, Luther Link examines common perceptions of the Devil's image and attributes - his tail, horns, flaming hair, pitchfork. Yet, as Link shows, there is no one standard depiction of Satan, just as he has no one name. Behind the mask of evil, he has taken a bewildering variety of forms: he can be the bloated and wanton cannibal of Giotto's Last Judgment; he can be half wise old man, half malevolent monster; he can even be beautiful and grand, as in the Limbourg Brothers' Fall of Lucifer. Link's compelling text identifies for the first time the origins of many of the Devil's features, provides new perspectives on the image of the Devil today and in medieval and early Renaissance times, and offers unexpected insights or artworks ranging from illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, and reliefs to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes. Drawing on original textual sources, including colorful accounts of the Devil's origins in the Bible, the Apocrypha, the writings of St. Augustine, and reports on the intrigues of popes and emperors, Link produces a fresh view of this powerful and mysterious figure.