Minneapolis Institute of Art

Satan in Hell, from Milton’s Paradise Lost (The Rise of Satan)

Luigi Sabatelli

Date

c. 1800

Medium

Pen and brown ink over traces of underdrawing in pencil, with traces of framing lines in brown ink

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

As recounted in the John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, written in the 1600s, God cast Satan and his followers into hell, sending them to lie, bound in chains, in a lake of fire. When God released the chains, Satan flew to dry land where he found a foothold. Here Luigi Sabatelli shows us the moment of Satan’s landing. We see the powerful figure, his batwings spread, wide-eyed, and ready for trouble. Sabatelli’s Satan resounds with the spirit of the Sublime, the flip-side of the Enlightenment. Just as science was taking giant strides toward the understanding and control of nature, there was a great demand for words and images full of emotion acknowledging powers beyond human comprehension—the power of nature, the power of God, the power of spirits—all that is wondrous, both benign or, as here, malign. Italy, Europe

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