By Francesca Lungarotti
Art has long supported themes of the macabre, supernatural, death, hell and fear. Many famous artists conceptualized and illustrated the various facets of the ‘terrifying’, the ‘disturbing’, the ‘fear’ and the ‘horror’. Francisco Goya and his black figures, Edward Munch and the fear of the inexplicable that is also in oneself, William Blake’s illustrations of Hell and death, Michelangelo Merisi (known as Caravaggio) and the biblical blood that with him finds form and real representation, Odilon Redon with his depictions of dreams and nightmares and the universal judgments full of frightening and satirical figures. These artists were unafraid to showcase a world made of disturbing stories and representations. Sinister places like the famous The Abbey in the Oakwood by Caspar Friedrick or the Prisons by Piranesi that in addition to illustrating the concepts of solitude and abandonment also offer us scary places for the inspirations of this season.
Saint Nicolas de Veroce baroque church. The Last Judgment: the hell. A group of the Saved. Painting. Credit: Pascal Deloche/Godong/Universal Images Group 
Paul Cezanne: Still Life with Skull (Nature morte au crane). Credit: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group 
Dance of Death (III), 1915, by Edvard Munch (1863-1944). Lithograph. Credit: PHAS/Universal Images group 
Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi, Milan 1571 – Porto Ercole 1610 ‘Judith Beheads Holofernes’ 1602, detail. Credit: Molteni Motta/Universal Images Group 
Saturn Devouring one of his Children’, 1821-1823 by Francisco Goya. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group 
The Scream’, 1893 by Edvard Munch. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group 
Death: ‘My irony surpasses all others!’ plate 3 of 6, 1889. Odilon Redon (1840-1916). Credit: HUM Images/Universal Images Group 
Medusa as the shield of Athena, 1595, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 – 1610). Credit: Pictures From History/Universal Images Group 
Death comes to the emperor, Totentanz, (dance of death) by Georg Max Theodor Goetz. Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Death comes to the orphanage inspection, Totentanz (dance of death) by Georg Max Theodor Goetz. Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
And his name that sat on him was Death. Odilon Redon (1840 – 1916). Credit: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group 
The Circle of the Lustful, 1824-27 by William Blake. Credit: Sepia Times/ Universal Images Group 
David with the head of Goliath by Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (1571 – 1610). Credit: Molteni Motta/Universal Images Group 
Romania, Walachia. Horezu Monastery. Fresco. Doomsday. Hell Europa. Credit: Giulio Andreini/UCG/Universal Images Group 
The Capuchin Crypt of Palermo. Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Witches’ Sabbath or Devil’s Dance, after a painting by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Pharaoh Cleopatra VII (69 B.C. – 30 B.C.). Cleopatra’s death by the bite of the serpent, painting by Guido Cagnacci. Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group 
Invenzioni Capric di Carceri; Hind 14, First State of Three, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, (1720-1778). Credit: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group 
Artemisia prepares to drink the ashes of her husband Mausolus. Painting by Francesco Furini. Credit: Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group
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