Devils

by Gilles Néret

EVER SINCE HE DISGUISED HIMSELF AS A SNAKE AND TEMPTED EVE WITH AN APPLE, THE DEVIL HAS BEEN EVERYONE'S FAVORITE VILLIAN. LUCIFER HIMSELF IS THE STAR OF THIS BOOK, WHICH CONTAINS IMAGES OF HIM THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF ART. ETCHINGS, WOODCUTS, PAINTINGS, ILLUSTRATIONS, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND ADVERTISEMENTS FEATURING OF THE DEVIL, BY THE LIKES OF DA VINCI, BOSCH, PIERRE ET GILLES, GIGER, AND MANY MORE, POPULATE THE PAGES OF THIS SUPREMELY "EVIL" BOOK.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Religion, Reference

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Gilles Néret (6 November 1933 - 3 August 2005) was a French art critic and historian, journalist and curator. He wrote extensively on the history of erotica.

He organized several art retrospectives in Japan and founded the SEIBU museum and the Wildenstein Gallery in Tokyo. He directed art reviews such as L’Oeil and Connaissance des Arts and received the Elie Faure Prize in 1981 for his publications. Since 1992, Néret was an editor for Taschen, for which he has written catalogues raisonnés of the works of Klimt and others, as well as the author of Erotica Universalis.

Reviews

[Sotiris Makrygiannis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diabolos = slanderer in Greek. Demon (spirit), Satan (enemy), Lucifer (the brilliant one) , etc. The "devil" has multiple names and multiple meanings. Everyday acts that many, most of us do that can be turn negative for others or a group of people. If you use the original Greek as the key (slanderer) then you could observe that most of the icons have a big mouth (doing the slander) but funny faces. Horns indicate the non-human nature of citizenship but of the animal kingdom of raw emotions. In late 20st century, the Diabolos got a bit funky and introduced in marketing and movies. Attaching woman next to him to show the "root of all evils", orgies that could spark or eliminate jealousy from one. Learn the original meaning of words and use that as the key to decode the pictures observed. We all have a little Diavolos, Lucifer in us - best learn how to manage that and become better humans.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

the art in this is incredible.

[Maribeth Hudzik · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Was humankind fomenting its own fears, like children, just for the thrill of it? No such thing. The masses demanded to see them [demons] again and again.”

‘Devils’ is a great compact collection of “demon” themed artworks that features paintings, sculptures, tapestries, etchings, posters and more from different religions and time periods. The artwork displayed in this book features close ups of the devils and demons within their original works of art to give the reader a clearer view of detail to be observed and studied.

“The most admired figures in the Mystery plays were Adam and Eve in their immaculate nudity, not the saints in their gilded robes, nor even the virgin herself. It was Satan and his cohorts of shaggy demons emerging from the vast maw of Leviathan in a heartening blaze of eternal flames.

-Books introduction written in English, German and French.
-Close up details of the demons within their original works.
-Variety of works across different mediums
-Variety of demons represented by different religions

Some of the highlighted works included:
-Hans Memling ‘The Moth of Leviathan’
-Michelangelo, ‘The punishment of Sodomy’
-Giotto di Bondone, ‘The Last Judgement’
-Bertal, ‘The Beauty and the Beast’
-Dore, ‘La Ronde du Sabbat’
-Philippe Druillet, ‘Le Gynecee des Lionnes’
-Andrea Mantegna, ‘Initiation’
-H. R. Giger, ‘Baphomet’

“Make love not war”

[João Moura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colecção de ilustrações do diabo ao longo dos vários séculos, com representações de Lucifer na pintura e na publicidade, na religião e na cultura popular, oriundas do Ocidente e do Oriente. Não foltam nomes de peso como Bosch, Bruegel, Miguel Angelo, Durer, Goya e até um anónimo português.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

🔥👹🔥

[Aitor Merino Vázquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buena verga

[Mati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being good and art aware girl I went to my friend's place who share passion for art and instead of idle chitchat I went to the hell ehm the library and had very good time there. The main star of this book is devil, Satan, Lucifer, lord of flies or however you name him. There are statues, paintings, woodcuts, photographs (sadly not of him but of some human wannabies :) ) and other forms of art with common theme ....HIM. It is very interesting to see how the way of portraiting the most hated villain by almost all religion, except his own, changed trough the centuries. So do not be sissy, go and grab this book.

[Justin Stepney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a buncha pictures/paintings. Not my thing really..but I do like these pics if any.