The dark regions of hell also contained monsters identified as Jewish, Muslim, and African, featured in medieval paintings torturing humans. Hell represented the artistic antithesis to "the calm aesthetic numbness of heaven." We find many more paintings of hell because heaven was, in the aesthetic sense, boring. Hell was seen as an imminent danger, a misstep away from the village or city if one was foolish.

XREF: Connects to broader art history questions about why negative/violent imagery captivates audiences more than peaceful scenes — a recurring pattern across eras.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 114