Pandemonium

John Martin's Pandemonium of 1841 depicts the great assembly hall of Hell from Milton's Paradise Lost, Book I — the palace built by Satan's fallen angels as a seat of government in their infernal realm. Martin had illustrated Milton earlier in engravings that circulated widely, but the oil paintings allowed him to realize the full scale of his imagination. The columned hall stretches into the depths of a reddened darkness populated by numberless fallen angels, suggesting both Roman imperial architecture and industrial furnaces. The painting was one of a trio with The Great Day of His Wrath and The Plains of Heaven exhibited together.

Martin's characteristic use of extreme scale creates a vision of infernal grandeur, with colossal architecture receding into fiery depths. The lurid red and golden light effects against deep darkness create an overwhelming sense of sublime horror that established the visual vocabulary for depictions of Hell.