Condemned to the lit furnaces of hell: on the Hell's Torments to which sinners were to be subjected to (Desengano dos Pecadores, by Alexandre Perier SJ., 1724)

Abstract

In this article, we analyse the textual and iconographic representations of seven of Hell's Torments present in the book Desengano dos Pecadores, written by Italian priest Alexandre Perier SJ. in 1724, considering both the Portuguese universe of the practices of religious writing in the 1700s, as the Portuguese-American Catholic belief in the drama of the salvation of the souls. If the rhetorical resources employed in these descriptions not only demonstrate his sophisticated theological education, but also his perceptions on colonial society, resulting from his work as a missionary in Portuguese America, the images themselves accentuate the drama of the condemnation and impose a reflection about the torment that sinners suffer in the hereafter and the conducts that should be observed to ensure their salvation.