In the 16th and 17th century, grisly paintings of the
Evil One were intended literally, Barryte says.”They were meant to have a moral
effect, which is why artists made him awful looking. Even if you were educated,
you would wonder, ‘What if?’ No matter how skeptical one might be today, there
was real faith underlying this imagery.”
The Enlightenment began to change that. As our conception of evil shifted, so did our personification of the devil. “He becomes more human, even romanticized, after the popular revolutions of the late 18th century, especially the French Revolution,” Barryte says. In the 19th century, the devil was often depicted as a “shrewd and wily dandy,” a Mephistophelean figure who would trick you out of your soul, not brutally tear it from you. “Fear is no longer his most effective tactic,” Barryte says. “And in the 20th century, he all but disappears except in advertisements.”
Click below for the article:
From the always-awesome TheoFantastique blog.
The Enlightenment began to change that. As our conception of evil shifted, so did our personification of the devil. “He becomes more human, even romanticized, after the popular revolutions of the late 18th century, especially the French Revolution,” Barryte says. In the 19th century, the devil was often depicted as a “shrewd and wily dandy,” a Mephistophelean figure who would trick you out of your soul, not brutally tear it from you. “Fear is no longer his most effective tactic,” Barryte says. “And in the 20th century, he all but disappears except in advertisements.”
Click below for the article:
From the always-awesome TheoFantastique blog.
8 comments:
It's interesting to see how many ways Lucifer is portrayed in art. Just so many different views.
It does seem that most people nowadays have become so numb to who he really is, and we are more afraid of what goes on in the world now. All of the horrors that happen in this day and time is due to humans free will influenced by demonic possession.
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist"...Yep 110% true. he's been turnin the world upside down since forever & he will continue to do so. the same tragedies will continue to happen over & over again. he holds your hand with every crappy move you make.
One of my favorite things to listen to lately is a podcast called Monster Talk - the show itself is a really fun scientific look at cryptozoology, and one of the things they do is try to track down the actual folkloric origins of monster stories. Anyway, I recently listened to an episode about the Judeo-Christian Satan, and it's SUPER interesting to hear how the character of "The Adversary" has changed over human history. Highly recommended!
http://www.skeptic.com/podcasts/monstertalk/13/11/13/
Thanks, joel!
that sounds like something I'd totally dig.
Sounds like a good podcast to listen to.
It's funny how over the years he has been portrayed as a smooth, suit wearing man like Lou Cipher, or Pacino's take- and now I think of him as the goat from VVitch!
HAHAHAHHAA!!!
Gotta listen to that podcast. For all you 80's horror nerds, you GOTTA listen to the Say You Love Satan podcast as well. Really good. Plus Sam Heimer does the shows art work
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