Bible in art · Revelation

Revelation of St. John: The Woman of Babylon

Dürer · 1511
The Cleveland Museum of Art

Dürer cut this sheet of the Apocalypse around 1496–98; the impression is from the 1511 edition.

A richly dressed woman sits on the seven-headed beast and holds up a golden cup to a crowd of townspeople in the dress of Dürer’s day, one of them on his knees. Behind her the city burns, an angel throws a millstone into the sea, and an army of riders comes out of heaven.

From the text

A woman on a beast with seven heads, holding “a golden cup” (Revelation 17:3–4)
An angel casting a stone “the size of a great millstone” into the sea (Revelation 18:21)
A rider on a white horse with the armies of heaven (Revelation 19:11, 19:14)

The artist’s own

The woman dressed like a fashionable Venetian lady, after a drawing Dürer made in Venice
The onlookers as people of a German town

Details

The woman

She lifts a tall, ornate cup above the beast’s heads.

The onlookers

Townspeople in hats and furs; a monk kneels before her.

The millstone

An angel holds a great round stone.

The burning city

Flames and smoke rise from a walled town by the water.

Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland, 1922.94.16) · Woodcut · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

The verses

Rev 17:1–6Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.” And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her.

Rev 18:1–2After this I saw another angel descending from heaven with great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his glory. And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.

Rev 18:21Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be cast down, never to be seen again.

Rev 19:11–14Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war. He has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. He has a name written on Him that only He Himself knows. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is The Word of God. The armies of heaven, dressed in fine linen, white and pure, follow Him on white horses.

See it at the museum’s site