Hellmouth

This article is about the medieval image. For the punk band, see Hellmouth (band). For the 2014 horror film, see Hellmouth (film).
Miniature from the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.945, f. 107r

A Hellmouth, or the jaws of Hell, is the entrance to Hell envisaged as the gaping mouth of a huge monster, an image which first appeared in Anglo-Saxon art, and then spread all over Europe. It remained very common in depictions of the Last Judgment and Harrowing of Hell until the end of the Middle Ages, and is still sometimes used during the Renaissance and after. It enjoyed something of a revival in polemical popular prints after the Protestant Reformation, when figures from the opposite side would be shown disappearing into the mouth.[1] A notable late appearance is in the two versions of a painting by El Greco of about 1578.[2] Political cartoons still showed Napoleon leading his troops into one.[3]

Nuremberg, Saint Lawrence parish church: Western portal, 1340s

Medieval theatre often had a hellmouth prop or mechanical device which was used to attempt to scare the audience by vividly dramatizing an entrance to Hell. These seem often to have featured a battlemented castle entrance, in painting usually associated with Heaven.[4]

The Hellmouth was intended to remind a Christian audience of the danger of damnation. Those shown entering, or already inside, are typically shown naked, their clothing not having survived the General Resurrection of the Dead that is often part of the same image. Some, even if naked, wear headgear indicating their rank at the top of society, with the papal tiara, king's crown and bishop's mitre the most common. Far rarer are indications of people being non-Christian, such as the Jewish hat.[5]

  1. ^ Example by Cranach, 1545
  2. ^ Variously called The Adoration of the Name of Jesus (National Gallery, London)image Archived 2009-05-07 at the Wayback Machine, The Dream of Philip II or Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto (Escurial).image
  3. ^ from first external link
  4. ^ The Ecclesiological Society Archived 2008-05-27 at the Wayback Machine Dooms and the mouth of hell in the late medieval period with pictures including two Renaissance stagings.
  5. ^ DeVun, Leah (2021). The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance. Columbia University Press. pp. 93–94. ISBN 9780231195515.