The Iconography of the Souls of Purgatory: A Bibliographical Rereading and Some Examples (15th-18th centuries)

Abstract

This study is based on analysis of texts from Michel Vovelle, Jacques Le Goff, and Flávio Gonçalves related to Purgatory doctrine. Further, it examines the visual spacialisation of that scatological place through three works of art from different ages – a French one from Late Middle Ages (by Quarton), another one from Portuguese Mannerism (by Gregório Lopes) and, finally, a Brazilian one (by Antônio Francisco Lisboa). It aims to establish how iconography referring to the souls of Purgatory emerged after freeing itself from the iconography of the Final Judgement.