The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun

''The Great Red Dragon'' paintings are a series of

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

paintings by the English poet and painter

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

, painted between 1805 and 1810. It was during this period that Blake was commissioned to create over one hundred paintings intended to illustrate books of the Bible. These paintings depict "The Great Red Dragon" in various scenes from the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...

The paintings

''The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun'' (Rev. 12: 1-4)

Height: 43.7 cm, Width: 34.8 cm Housed at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

''The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun''

This image is similar to the work with a similar name in the Brooklyn Museum (see above) but the subject is shown from a different viewpoint and the figures are in different positions. Height: 40.8 cm, Width: 33.7 cm Housed at the

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of cha ...

''The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea''

Height: 40.1 cm, Width: 35.6 cm Housed at the

''The Number of the Beast is 666''

Height: 40.6 cm, Width: 33.0 cm Housed at: the Rosenbach Museum & Library

In media

It has been used as the Oxford World's Classics front cover of ''

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner ''The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself: With a detail of curious traditionary facts and other evidence by the editor'' is a novel by the Scottish author James Hogg, published anonymously in 1824. The p ...

.'' Several of the paintings featured prominently in the 2019 psychological horror film ''

Saint Maud ''Saint Maud'' is a 2019 British psychological horror film written and directed by Rose Glass in her feature directorial debut. The story follows hospice nurse Maud (portrayed by Morfydd Clark), a recent convert to Roman Catholicism, who becomes ...

'' by British director Rose Glass. The 1981 novel '' Red Dragon'', by author Thomas Harris, heavily features the Blake painting. The primary antagonist is driven by a psychological obsession with the painting, including having the painting tattooed onto his back and the belief that his murders will help him to transform into the Red Dragon. Near the end of the novel, he attempts to break away from his beliefs by going to the Brooklyn Museum and eating the original painting itself. The 2002 film version of the novel includes these elements, and features multiple shots of the painting, as did the NBC prequel series ''

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Puni ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Red Dragon Paintings William Blake's mythology Collections of the National Gallery of Art 1800s paintings Painting series Art by William Blake Paintings based on the Book of Revelation Satan Dragons in art Watercolor paintings