Compiling Vices, Curating Hell, and Sinners on Display: Museological and Encyclopedic Readings of Trecento and Quattrocento Hell Scenes

Abstract:This paper examines trecento and quattrocento depictions of hell from a museological perspective, interpreting the painted hell as a distinct type of collection that operates meaningfully in both contemporary and historical contexts. Sinners—framed as objects within this infernal assemblage—serve as documents of the social and moral realities from which they originated, sharing the documentary value of modern museum exhibits. The paper explores the mechanisms and rationale behind their selection, classification, grouping, and presentation, arguing that the choice of depicted sinners largely mirrors the sevenfold scheme of deadly sins. Since the capital sins were seen as the root of all others, these infernal scenes take on an encyclopedic and microcosmic character, employing a diagrammatic visual logic typical of late medieval and early modern systems for ordering knowledge. The paper proposes that hell functioned as a cabinet of moral curiosities, shaped by a unique hamartiological framework and characterized by careful and systematic processes of selection, classification, and organization, testifying to the encyclopedic ambitions of early modern collecting practices.