Faces of the Devil

the faces behind the masks

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the way in which, historically, the devil’s faces were constructed, that is, how new meanings came to be attributed to him. To this end, the work was divided into three brief topics. In the first, we seek to take a look at the representations of evil in the ancient world, in religions that predate Christianity. In the second topic, we will see the role that the devil assumes according to the Christian biblical script, understood as a fundamentally necessary element to antagonize good (God), building the limits between good and evil. In the third topic, we will explore the image representations of the devil, whose hideous faces, painted on canvas, began to form an important part of the subjects’ imagination, a kind of appeal to the eyes so that the face of the “dark” character would come to be remembered.