The Mouth of Hell: from The Hours of Catherine of Cleves
I have a weak spot for images of medieval demons. In fact, I could pore over the finely illuminated manuscripts of the high Middle Ages for hours, wondering at the mindset of the monks who spent days straining their eyes and their necks to create fantastical and terrifying visions of hell in the margins of their most sacred texts.
What were they thinking? Were they trying to amuse or intimidate their readers? Where did they look for their inspiration? And who in their right mind, as another blogger has asked, could anyone begin to come up with something like an image of a woman vomiting up a fox?
Anyway, all that is to say that the lovely folk at The Morgan Museum have pointed out to me that their new exhibition of the Hours of Catherine of Cleves is now open for business. All the way across the Pond in New York City, alas! Or, alas! unless you live in New York City, I suppose.
And not that alas! at all actually, since you can browse the whole thing in pretty high-def online. Check it out. Demons ago-go. As close as it gets to medieval porn, IMHO.
