The remarkable story of ‘Pascuum of Satanas’.
This case concerns the disappearance of the right panel of the diptych ‘Pascuum of Satanas’, more commonly referred to today as ‘Fields of Hell’ (1703 oil on wooden panels 56″ x 128″). It was by the Dutch artist Hans Van Vfeete (Leyden 1654 – St Louis 1738/9). Van Vfeete was known to have studied in the studio of Jan Steen and based his powerful diptych on Steen’s ‘The Merry Family’, but with a much more sinister and disturbing message. For years powerful clerics and other educated men refused to even discuss the implications of this extraordinary work.
