The Dragon Pursues the Woman Clothed in the Sun Who Receives the Wings of an Eagle (Ms. Ludwig III 1, fol. 21v, from the Getty Apocalypse)

Unknown English painter · about 1255–1260
Getty Center, Los Angeles

Another page of the Getty Apocalypse, England, about 1255–1260. The painter left most of the parchment bare and coloured the dragon in red.

A red dragon with many crowned heads crouches on a rock. At the right a woman in a long blue robe receives wings from an angel who flies down from a cloud. John watches from outside the frame.

From the text

The woman is given two wings of a great eagle (Revelation 12:14)

The dragon pursues the woman (Revelation 12:13)

The artist’s own

The wings fastened by an angel

John watching from outside the frame

Details

The dragon

A red beast with many heads.

The woman

She stands in a long robe.

The angel

He brings the wings from a cloud.

John

He watches from the margin.

Unknown illuminator, English (probably London). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. Ludwig III 1 (83.MC.72), fol. 21v) · Tempera colors, gold leaf, colored washes, pen and ink · Images provided here are believed to be in the public domain and are available under CC0 through Getty’s Open Content Program. (Getty record: "No Copyright", http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

The verses

Rev 12:13–16And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle to fly from the presence of the serpent to her place in the wilderness, where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. Then from the mouth of the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away in the torrent. But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth to swallow up the river that had poured from the dragon’s mouth.