Hell or Paradise The Origins of Caricature 16th-18th centuries

Calvinists depicted as monkeys… A terrifying, demonic pope… Smiling reformers triumphantly arriving in Hell… The Church embodied by the Whore of Babylon…

From the 1520s, the confrontation between Protestants and Catholics engendered satirical images of unusual vehemence. These images were disseminated mainly through a formidable new weapon: engraving. They ridiculed and demonised the opposite party by associating it with Hell. Their imagery, inspired by mediaeval grotesques, became settled during Luther’s lifetime and varied very little until the age of Enlightenment.

The catalogue of the exhibition Hell or Paradise focuses on this period in the history of satire. After an introduction devoted to mediaeval precedents, it addresses the question of images, then of dogma and ritual, and of the individual, highlighting the gradual emergence of caricature. Finally, rare images of religious tolerance are discussed in the conclusion.

French Version : ISBN 978-2-88474-287-0