The Domestic Macabre: Devils and Violence on Medieval Tiles
The Domestic Macabre: Devils and Violence on Medieval Tiles

Summary/Abstract: The present paper analyzes the possible functions of medieval stove tile depictions consisting of violent scenes and images of devils and devilish monsters. The depictions on mold‑made stove tiles can be considered the first mass produced images before print and are thus valuable sources in the research of popular culture, especially in Central and Eastern Europe where print made a later appearance. The focus here is on macabre depictions of tiles (devilish monsters, scenes of deadly violence, demons, and afterlife torments). My hypothesis is that though ‘lighter’ than macabre scenes in other arts, such images on stove tiles might have played an apotropaic function, meant to repel or distract maleficent spirits that could cause people harm through stove malfunctions. Still, one cannot exclude the moralizing, instructive, and purely entertaining functions of such depictions.

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