The Iconography of the Mouth of Hell: Eighth-century Britain to the Fifteenth Century

THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE MOUTH OF HELL: EIGHTH-CENTURY BRITAIN TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. By Gary D. Schmidt. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna Press, and London: Associated University Presses, 1995. Pp. 234; 35 illustrations. $3950

Readers interested in the reciprocal relations among texts, images, and cultural contexts will find Gary D. Schmidt's book a useful if flawed compilation of information on the origins, development, and eventual demise of the iconographic theme of the hell mouth. Along the way, Schmidt guides us through the relevant verbal texts-scripture and commentary, visionary and exhortatory literature, Old and Middle English poetry, and medieval and Renaissance drama up to Dr Faustus-and the artistic renditions in illustrated manuscripts, sculpture, and painting. Readers will be disappointed, however, with the book's lack of contemporary argument, unity and coherence, and acceptable photography.

As I read the book I noted four main points: 1 ) the visual image of the anthropomorphic hell mouth developed during the tenth-century monastic reform in England and then spread rapidly across western Europe; 2) the hell month first appeared in "purely private devotional forums" and later appeared in "public exhortatory forums that encouraged viewers to mediate [sic] on their end" (p. 14); 3) between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries the image became dramatically transformed and elaborated, adding gates, cauldrons, and multiple heads, thus changing from a simple entrance to a complex schema of hell itself and damnation (p. 164); and 4) medieval drama added visual and auditory effectsmouths moving up and down, belching fire and smoke, accompanied by thundering cannons, drums, and screaming demons.

The six chapters are arranged chronologically, beginning with the tenth-century monastic revival and ending with fifteenth-century drama. In Chapter i, "The Monastic Revival and the Formation of the Hell Mouth Image," Schmidt develops his first claim that the tenth-century monastic revival in England, inspired by the Cluniac reforms on the continent, provided the cultural context for the development of the visual image of the anthropomorphic hell mouth. He also discusses the critical context, briefly citing the work of previous scholars, including the 1977 Berkeley Ph.D. dissertation "The Shape of Hell in Anglo-Saxon England" byJoyce Galpern, and the 1992 article "`Who Can Open the Doors of His Face?': The Iconography of the Hell Mouth" by Pamela Sheingorn (pp. 1-19 in The...