ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Byzantine stereotypes regarding the depiction of cities, in conjunction with Western influences, to reveal critical narratives toward living in urban centers considered ‘sinful.’ The Byzantine and post-Byzantine East was unfamiliar with such a naturalistic rendering of the city as Lorenzetti’s as well as a visual approach to its social character. The motif of the burning city in Hell, uncommon for Byzantine and post-Byzantine infernal landscapes, may be associated with the visual vocabulary of the Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch who used to criticize inter alia the morals of urban life. Adopting Renaissance models for the depiction of the personifications of vices walking in a solemn pageant toward Hell probably reveals a critical attitude towards urban life conforming to Western modus vivendi. The iconography of the pageant in our icon probably draws on Renaissance art, especially on The Triumph of Love, which forms part of the composition Trionfi, illustrating the extremely popular homonymous poem by Petrarch.
