
Harry would say this isn’t quite as bad as what he’s about to go through.
(The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Martin Schöngauer (1450-1491)
Harry Eberhardt may be a crack demon slayer, but having a vortex suck him down to a realm of demons, a hell, is more of a challenge than he’d care to undertake. Unfortunately, he just fell into a vortex. Too bad! And that’s only the start of a journey Harry definitely wishes he was not taking among “The dead and the damned” in chapter 10 of Magician’s Misfortune, my weekly serial about the disasters that befall Harry when he visits the sleepy truck stop of Farnham.
What I want to know is why artists have always represented demons–tormenting, tempting–as naked, with genitals hanging. I think of Hieronymus Bosch, who must be the king of demon-painters. Wizard, brill, what-o!
Some of it, I suspect has to do with the same reason painters liked to do Biblical or classical scenes that HAD to involve nudity — it’s the only times you could get away with that sort of thing. Presumably there’s also some sort of symbology about sex and sin involved as well.