Painted in 1841, John Martin’s Pandemonium is his vision of the capital of Hell from John Milton’s Paradise Lost. In the poem, Satan rises from defeat and summons his followers, and the palace of Pandemonium suddenly appears to house the council of all the demons. Martin shows this moment as a vast architectural panorama: a colossal, terraced palace lit from below by a river of lava, its long façade and repeating arches echoing contemporary designs for London’s rebuilt Houses of Parliament. In the foreground, on the right, a single figure stands on the rocks facing the fiery city — identified in museum records as Satan himself, raising shield and spear toward the palace across the chasm. Below, in the glowing lava, Martin suggests the demonic host as an indistinct mass rather than clearly drawn individuals, emphasizing how small they are compared with the structure they have raised. The title comes straight from Milton’s invented word Pandæmonium (“all the demons”), and the painting leans into that idea: not a scene of personal torment, but a monumental image of pride, organization, and revolt given a city of its own.
