Dmitriy Trubin, Devil. Painting, dimensions available upon request.
Frank Slabbinck, Happy Devil, 2013. Resin on other substrate, 37 x 25 x 10 cm / 1.10 kg.
"Dressing up, wearing a costume or coloring for Halloween, is tantamount to worshiping the devil." "I am happy that Christian parents allow their children to worship the devil at least one night a year. Welcome to Halloween."
The disturbing, and certainly for many questionable, words of Anton LaVey, U.S. esotericist, musician and writer, founder of the Church of Satan, introduce us to the holiday of Halloween and, in particular, the connection the latter seems to present with the world of darkness. In fact, this holiday is related to Samhain, an ancient Celtic-pagan holiday that, dating as far back as the 6th century B.C. or earlier, celebrated the transition from summer to winter by glorifying death, that is, that natural condition whereby in the winter months life would seem to be silent, when, in fact, it rests underground, just like the dead. Therefore, during this particular occasion, the Celts were convinced, that the veil between the afterlife and the world thinned, allowing the return of the spirits and souls of the dead, with whom they sought to make contact. Precisely such occultism, which was also capable of revealing demonic entities, was later opposed by Christianity, which recognized it as an instrument of Satan par excellence. Despite the Church's iconic aversion to the devil, this great protagonist of Halloween costumes has often been depicted by Christian artists, who have used his figure to frighten the faithful into better conduct. In fact, the presence of the devil is found, for example, in Rosso Fiorentino's Deposition (1527-1528), an oil on panel painting preserved in the Church of San Lorenzo in Sansepolcro, Italy, aimed at immortalizing the body of Christ, who, newly deposed from the cross, is supported by men, while the distraught Virgin is supported by women. The heartfelt portrayal of Christ's body, as well as the figure of Magdalene slumped over in suffering, derive from the theories of Savonarola and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, thinkers who believed that works of art should stimulate the religious imagination of the faithful in order to foster the development of their conscience, enabling them to gain easier access to paradise. Therefore, the ape-like face of the monstrous being, which appears at the bottom of the panel, is interpreted by some historians as the presence of Satan, intended as a reminder of what one may be up against if one does not properly reflect on the messages cast by the images.
Rosso Fiorentino, Deposition of Sansepolcro, 1528. Oil on panel, 270 × 201 cm. Church of San Lorenzo, Sansepolcro.
Albrecht Dürer, The Knight, Death and the Devil, 1513. Burin engraving si copper plate, 15 x10 cm. Karlsruhe: Staatliche Kunsthalle.
The Halloween tale continues, as the Florentine artist presents another occasion, in which his "relationship" with the devil turned out to be somewhat ambiguous. In fact, regarding his Altarpiece of the Spedalingo di Santa Maria Nuova (1518), now housed in the Uffizi, the work, ordered for the altar of the Florentine church of Ognissanti by Leonardo Buonafede, was the subject of a bitter dispute between the artist and the commissioner, who, at first, went so far as to reject it because the painted saints appeared to him to be devils. In reality, the matter was resolved without "trick or treat", as Buonafede accepted the work, as it was Rosso's custom to sketch the figures with cruel and desperate airs, only to soften them later. If such interpretive ambiguity occurs in the Tuscan's works, in Albrecht Dürer's burin, entitled Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), good is clearly opposed to evil, as the crusader, the protagonist of the masterpiece, advances confidently and strongly toward Jerusalem, without paying the slightest attention to the figures of death and the devil. The latter, as in the context of Halloween, have well-researched physical connotations, such that death is a skeleton with a mustache, beard and hair, while the monstrous-looking devil turns out to be an assemblage of peculiarities of different animals, within which the curved horns of the ram stand out. In addition to Knight, Death and the Devil, The Master of Nuremberg "defeated" the devil in another great graphic work, such as the Apocalypse, a series of fifteen woodcuts, which, datable between 1496 and 1498, are intended to illustrate the book of John, in which the defeat of the beast and the vision of the heavenly Jerusalem are narrated. Precisely within the latter masterpiece, Satan manifests himself in different forms, so much so that it would be possible to create an unprecedented and courtly repertoire of Halloween masks inspired by them.
Angelo Ribeiro, Lazarim devil, 2019. Metal on metal, 70 x 40 x 20 cm / 15.00 kg.
Shoop, Day of Rest, 2022. Ink / pencil / graphite / marker on paper, 42 x 29.7 cm.
Francisco Goya, Johann Heinrich Füssli and contemporary art
The art-devil pairing continues in the work of two other later iconic masters, such as Goya and Füssli, known for their ambiguous relationship with the world of darkness, exemplified to perfection by such masterpieces as The Witches' Sabbath (1797-1798) and Satan and Death (1799-1800). Regarding the former, the Spaniard's painting depicts the ritual of a Satanist coven, in which a number of women arranged in a circle offer infants to a goat, namely Satan, while they sit. The work, which along with others is part of a series of six canvases entitled Sorceries, was commissioned by the Duke of Osuna, who chose such a subject with the overtly Enlightenment intent of stigmatizing all forms of superstition. Therefore, Goya's masterpiece, compared to those previously investigated, aims to defeat the devil through intellect rather than faith. It is precisely such rationalism that is contrasted by the artistic investigation of Johann Heinrich Füssli, whose Gothic Romanticism often gave rise to graceful and harmonious female characters, who, surrounded by dark and gloomy environments, were accompanied by the disturbing presence of monstrous animals. In regard to contemporary art, however, it takes up all these traditions, transforming references to the devil into a rich cultural stratification, capable of narrating through multiple points of view the same dark subject. This is the context for the "Halloween-themed" figurative investigation of Artmajeur artists, well exemplified by the pictorial research of Begüm Mert, Cabinet De Curiosités Artistiques and Paolo Rizzi.
Begüm Mert, Devil, 2021. Acrylic / pencil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm.
Begüm Mert: Devil
Mert's Pop painting opens a centuries-long reflection concerning the ways in which the devil is depicted, since, subsequent to the early Christian authors, who described the devil as a fallen angel, such a figure became as monstrous as possible in order to best convey its negative peculiarities. In the 17th century, on the other hand, in the epic poem Paradise Lost, John Milton described Satan as the most beautiful of all angels, so much so that later artists such as William Blake depicted him with human features. Speaking of the latter English master, noteworthy is his watercolor and pencil work entitled Satan Watching the Caresses of Adam and Eve, the result of an artistic investigation, which sought to depict evil by often referring to the works of the greatest literary figures, such as Dante, Shakespeare and the aforementioned Milton. This context of "newfound beauty" also includes the work of Artmajeur's artist, who, arguably, transformed the devil into a sensual boy in order to admonish the viewer, making him realize that evil can lurk behind every type of life form in existence.
Cabinet De Curiosités Artistiques, The devil and his creatures, 2000. Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 41 cm.
Cabinet De Curiosités Artistiques: The devil and his creatures
The title of the work by Cabinet De Curiosités Artistiques alludes to an intimate dimension of Satan's life, to a space of his own, within which he cultivates a relationship with his creatures. Therefore, the Artmajeur artist's painting refers us to a masterpiece of art history, which, with "kindred" chromaticism, carefully describes the activities, which the devil carries out in his space par excellence: hell. Such an environment is rendered to perfection by the Florence Baptistery mosaic of The Last Judgment, the lower register of which depicts Paradise, on the right, and Hell on the left. If in the first place souls are escorted by angels to the heavenly Jerusalem, in the other destination hideous devils push the damned to the right, where they pile on each other. In this context, the figure of Satan stands out, who, horned on a flaming throne, is depicted as he is intent on munching on a man, accompanied by other monsters who, emerging from his body, rage on the damned. Such a tale is meant to allude to the insatiability of the devil, his feral and evil nature, but also to the concept that divinity is, both creator and destroyer. The violence of what is described is contrasted with the artist's work in Artmajeur, which, unlike the Florentine one, appears to be a reunion of old friends, rather than a cruel "criminal association."
Paolo Rizzi, Deviless III, 2021. Oil on cardboard, 100 x 70 cm.
Paolo Rizzi: Deviless III
Referring to the artist's words in Artmajeur, his work was inspired by the "diabolical" female ability to seduce, found in many sensual women in art history, such as, for example, Giorgione's Sleeping Venus, Titian's Venus of Urbino, Manet's Olympia, and Klimt's Judith. In this context, however, it is more pertinent to report the example of a true "dark lady," such as the Deviless, a gargoyle-like statue, which, placed under the portico of Via D'Azeglio in Bologna (Italy), represents a copy of Jean de Boulogne's bronze devil, preserved at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (Italy). Said wrought-iron work with clearly female features and a canine head, represents an eerie, curious and fascinating figure, officially recognized as an ancient protector of wayfarers and, at the same time, as a probable cautionary figure in memory of the witch Caterina, who lived in the said area in the 15th century. The latter, wife of a wool merchant, was renowned for being a woman of easy virtue who, in order to do her own bidding, used to divert her husband by preparing opium-based infusions for him to drink. Once her misdeeds were discovered, she was accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death, nevertheless, the Cardinal Legate pardoned her life one step away from execution.
Olimpia Gaia Martinelli
