Dreams of Pantagruel
Here are 120 woodcuts of characters from 1565 that would fit perfectly in a Hieronymus Bosch or Pieter Brueghel picture. These are some of the most fascinating and unusual depictions of characters and creatures that I've ever seen. There seems to be some confusion as to who actually made these. Officially these were made by François Rabelais, but according to BibliOdyssey they might have been made by François Desprez.

Click here to see a selection of these reinterpreted by none other than Salvador Dali.
Click the following numbers to see some monsters done in a similar style to those linked to above. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

Artworks found at BibliOdyssey.

Dante's Inferno
Here is a collection of high quality scans from an Italian copy of "The Divine Comedy".
Here is an interesting illustration of the Inferno.
Gustave Dore's illustrations of Hell.
An illustration from Dante's Inferno by William Blake.
Click here to see a collection of clips from the 1912 silent film based upon Dante's Inferno.


The following isn't associated with Dante's Inferno, at least not directly, but I wanted to show you a few more interesting works related to the Devil before the day is over.
Here is a painting of Hell by the Limbourg Brothers.
Click here to see an engraving by Albrecht Duerer of a Knight, Death and the Devil.
I linked to Barlowe back in January, but here is a direct link to his "Inferno" painting series.

John Martin's "Paradise Lost"
John Martin's "Paradise Lost" mezzotint etching series is one of the most interesting visions of Hell. The vast cavernous landscapes with giant ancient architecture makes Hell out to be a place I'd really like to visit. His glowing white figures against darkened backgrounds creates a very strange dream like vision. His depiction of the Fall of Babylon is one of my favorite works of his. Be sure to click on the image here to see additional details of the mezzotint etching.

Matt Leines
I've seen Leines artwork all over the place in the past few years but it's only recently that I've started to really appreciate how strange his work really is. I think this description sums his work up perfectly. "Drawing influence from Hermetic Sciences to Hulk Hogan and Harald Hardrada to He-Man, Matt Leines paints pictures that depict the culture and conflicts of a fantasy world inhabited by moustached men, wild beasts, and living architecture."

Pictures from one of his books.
Scans from his book "Architecture Of A Nameless World"
2nd Gallery
Photos from a gallery show
Scroll to the bottom to see 4 Leines images.
Single Image 1
Single Image 2
Single Image 3
Single Image 4
And he's even got a myspace page.

Seth Scriver
Aside from having drawn a selection of oddball characters and creatures, Seth has made some very amusing flash animations. Check out "Seth Vs Osirus" in the animation section, great stuff.

Monstruos Diabolicos
This is a collection of very weird monster stamps made by an artist who apparently thinks Darth Vader drinks blood. Found this site will browsing Eye Of The Goof.

Craoman
Craoman's art blog is full of really perverted, twisted, weird and all around horrific art.

James Ensor
Ensor's imagery is very nightmarish. Characters have faces that resemble masks, demons taunt and torment people in a variety of ways. There's always some sinister character or act set forth in his work. Apart from his disturbing masked characters which he is most well known for, he was also a master at depicting architecture, as can be seen in this etching.

2nd Gallery
3rd Gallery
4th Gallery
5th Gallery - Check out the first picture in this gallery. The image is huge and lets you really study Ensor's mark making.