Holy shit. Nothing prepared me for the sadistic and grotesque fresco that covered the ceiling of the Duomo in Firenze (Florence for you uncultured folks). Our first day in Italy, we went into the Duomo but didn’t want to wait in the line to climb up to the top. However, I did catch a glimpse of the grim reaper in the painting, and that was pretty cool:

But until we got to the top and were making our way out, I was clueless as to the subject matter of the church’s centerpiece. At this point, I was doing the whole “yeah yeah another old church and some awesome art I get it” so I wasn’t expecting anything to particularly peak my senses. So to say I was pleasantly surprised would be a gross understatement.

Obviously, there is some super Catholic burn in Hell type shit going on here, but let me please key you in to some of the details:

This guy is getting work done. Taking care of business. His buddy to the right is putting on his suit (skin) before he gets a start on the workday.

Three-headed beast eating people alive! I love it!

You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s little that’s less evil and humiliating than getting sodomized with a flaming spear. No pun intended, but jesus christ (or lack thereof).

These demons are having way too much fun with the sinners. Good to know they enjoy their work.

Another three-header.

Some lizard man beast about to club a motherfucker.

Yeah there were some heavenly figures in the painting too, but they weren’t the highlight by far.

Tags: church, duomo, firenze, florence, italy

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 11:28 am and is filed under Art, Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.