With both hands Michael drives a long lance downwards.
Bible in art · Revelation
Saint Michael Fighting the Dragon
Albrecht Dürer · probably c. 1496/1498 (published 1511)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
This woodcut belongs to Dürer’s Apocalypse, the series of large prints he published in Nuremberg in 1498. The sheet comes from the Latin edition of 1511 — the text printed on the back shows faintly through the paper.
In the sky Michael drives a long lance into a dragon’s throat while other angels fight with sword and bow against a swarm of monsters. Far below lies a calm landscape with a town, a lake and sailing boats.
From the text
- “A war broke out in heaven” (Revelation 12:7)
- “Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back” (Revelation 12:7)
- “The great dragon was hurled down” (Revelation 12:9)
The artist’s own
- A peaceful German landscape beneath the battle, untouched by it
- The dragon’s angels as a swarm of beasts with horns, tusks and claws
- Michael with a lance, as older pictures of Saint Michael showed him
- Dürer’s “AD” monogram at the bottom
Details
Michael
The dragon
The lance strikes the dragon’s throat; its wings spread and its tail coils.
The archer
Another angel draws a bow against the monsters.
Sword and shield
At the top right an angel raises a sword above a shield.
Tusks
A monster with huge tusks tumbles at the right edge.
The world below
A calm landscape with a town, a lake and sailing boats.
Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Rosenwald Collection, 1980.45.456.rr) · Woodcut · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)