ABSTRACT
Imagery representing the Christian scheme of sin and salvation could be seen in many domestic houses in post-reformation England. This chapter argues that the presence of this sort of imagery within the post-reformation household should be understood as an attempt to re-focus attention on spiritual endeavour during the routines of domestic life. It extends the author's reading of the role and significance of religious images in modern domestic decoration. It considers how the inherent meaning of certain episodes is enhanced or nuanced by the associations of their physical setting when deployed as part of the material culture of the hearth. The chapter examines visual treatments of the concept of salvation in this context, focusing on biblical images representing divine deliverance from fire. It suggests that on the one hand the visual and material elaboration of the hearth could serve as a means to reflect and deflect anxieties surrounding the capricious nature of domestic fires as a threat to worldly estate.
