MY wife presented me with a beautiful copy of Ruth Dangelmaier’s work on Italian Renaissance Painting and it has since become a real favourite of mine. I am particularly taken with these images from Lucca Signorelli’s early sixteenth-century work, The Damned, which depicts a crowd of terrified sinners being ruthlessly harrassed by a gang of hellish demons. Interestingly, I think it makes a perfect backdrop for something I was discussing with one of my political contacts.

A member of Antifa was asking me why, as an anti-fascist, I don’t support her organisation and once I had explained that I will never condone violence against another political group on account of disagreeing with its beliefs, not to mention the sheer folly of targetting largely irrelevant and marginal fascist organisations that ultimately tear themselves apart, I referred my correspondent to Signorelli’s masterpiece.

Turning to the main image, what we see initially is a tumultuous frenzy of bodies and one group which is clearly being oppressed by another. It is not important whether those in the ascendency happen to be human or demonic, because if we cast our eyes to the upper half of the frame we see that three archangels are conveniently overseeing the entire process. A fitting analogy, perhaps, for the modern nation-state and its willingness to encourage one section of society to wage war on another. The demons may be liberals, communists or fascists, but it doesn’t really matter when the combatants have taken their eye off the real oppressor.