The Damned in Hell in the Frescoes of Venetian-dominated Crete
Continuing Open University, University of Mainz and Warburg Institute project, initiated in 2010 with funding from the Leverhulme Trust. The participation of the Warburg Institute was arranged by Dr Rembrandt Duits.
Objectives: to examine representations of the Damned in Hell in Cretan wall paintings produced during the Venetian domination of the island (1211-1669).
This project is led and co-managed by Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou at the Open University, and Prof. Dr. Vasiliki Tsamakda at the University of Mainz, and involves a team of academics from seven institutions in the UK, USA, Germany and Greece. The Warburg Institute is represented by Dr Rembrandt Duits. The research team has gathered photographic and documentary material and is engaged in analysing the sinners and their punishments in Hell, and in exploring the ways in which these images relate to the broader contexts of the island and the Byzantine and Mediterranean spheres.
Damned in Hell project publications
The principal outcome of the project is Hell in the Byzantine World: A History of Art and Religion in Venetian Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean, ed. Angeliki Lymberopoulou and Vassiliki Tsamakda, 2 vols (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
There will also be a database presenting photographs and information regarding the churches on Crete which have been examined in the project.
The image shows sinners asleep on a Sunday: fresco, 1357-58, Church of Christ the Saviour, village of Hagia Eirini, prefecture of Chania.