a ferocious, fire-breathing beast, bad tempered with impenetrable scales, bat-like wings, jagged fangs, and sharp claws
enemy, evil, symbol of sin, wickedness and ferocity
1. powerful and beautiful it has for millennia captivated the minds of artists, writers and story tellers ...
3. a ferocious, fire-breathing beast, bad tempered with impenetrable scales, bat-like wings, jagged fangs,
and sharp claws
the enemy, evil, and reincarnation of the Devil in Christianity,
symbol of sin, wickedness and ferocity
6. In the classical world, a dragon was usually a huge serpent, long in the body and covered with scales.
In mediaeval times, it seems, it acquired legs, wings and started breathing fire.
Depictions of dragons became elaborated into complex beasts which could put up a real fight with the most
valiant of knights.
7. One of the well-known dragons of the classical world was that which guarded
the Golden Fleece ...
Jason feet are on the body of the dragon, which looks more like a large bird
of prey than a serpent
Gustave Moreau
Jason and Medea
Jason et Médée
1865
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
9. dragon-like monster killing and eating two of the men ...
popular story from classical myth is that of Cadmus, the
founder and first king of the ill-fated city of Thebes
just before he started to build that city, some of his men
were devoured by a dragon
into the distance, though, the same beast being impaled by
Cadmus with his javelin
Cornelis van Haarlem
Two Followers of Cadmus Devoured by a Dragon
Le Dragon dévore deux compagnons de Cadmus
1588
The National Gallery, London
13. While one of the beast’s three heads (a slight exaggeration from
the myth) gets on with eating its victim,
the hero is thrusting his spear deep into the throat of another head …
Hendrik Goltzius
Cadmus Slays the Dragon
Cadmus tuant le dragon
1573-1617
Museet på Koldinghus, Deposit of the Statens Kunstsamlinger, København
17. a dragon rises up from the earth
and the thunderbolt from Zeus is flying down to kill Phaethon ...
Gustave Moreau
The Fall of Phaethon
Chute de Phaéton, projet de plafond
1878
Musée d'Orsay, conservé au musée du Louvre, Paris
19. it is not possible to find a more bizarre or fantastic
monster than that which Piero imagined and painted ...
the beast roils the sea’s surface in his death throes;
his coiling tail, webbed feet, and long fangs are both
monstrous and comically elegant, and seawater jets
from his nostrils
and
Perseus came plunging in his steep dive down air
and attacked the monster, who roared as his shoulder
took the sword-blade up to the hilt ...
Piero di Cosimo
Andromeda freed by Perseus
Persée délivrant Andromède
1510-1515
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
23. Lord Leighton’s Cetus is the only fire-breathing monster which fits
the modern concept of a ‘dragon’
Perseus’s arrow has just struck the dragon …
Frederic, Lord Leighton
Perseus and Andromeda
Persée et Andromède
1891
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
26. an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns
and seven crowns on his heads
descends upon a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon
under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head
William Blake
The Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun
Le Grand Dragon Rouge et la Femme vêtue de Soleil
1803
Brooklyn Museum, New York
27. ...Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven royal
crowns on his heads.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood
before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born …
Rev. 12:3–4, KJV
30. ... and when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth,
he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle,
that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place,
where she is nourished for a time
William Blake
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun
Le Grand Dragon Rouge et la Femme vêtue par le Soleil
1805
The National Gallery of Art (Rosenwald Collection), Washington, DC
34. ... an almost hallucinatory fantasy of madness, vengeance
and black magic
Armide, seated on a dragon, enraged by Renaud’s "betrayal",
orders the demons to rise from Hell and demolish her palace
in an orgy of destruction and self-immolation
Charles Antoine Coypel
The Destruction of the Palace of Armida
La destruction du palais d'Armide
1787
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy
38. a brave and richly-armed knight, who does not fly
a girl tied to the tree, but who doesn't seem scared
and
a magnificent blue-green dragon with a very peaceful appearance
Arnold Böcklin
Ruggiero and Angelica
Roger Freeing Angelica
Roger libérant Angelica
1873
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin State Museums, Berlin
41. A dragon in Christian art represents sin and the sinful nature, and is also a common way of depicting
the devil, especially in the context of devourer.
A number of saints are depicted defeating or otherwise overcoming dragons.
42. Saint George is about to deliver the fatal blow
and
the last offensive gesture of the dragon
Raphael
Saint George and the Dragon, St. George Struggling with the Dragon
Saint Georges et le Dragon, Saint Georges terrassant le dragon
1502-1503
Musée du Louvre, Paris
45. In the legend of Saint George, the saint slays the dragon,
which demands human sacrifices, in order to save
the princess, its next victim.
Mounted on his white steed, this Saint George is also
a figure of spiritual purity who, in killing the dragon,
is perhaps also vanquishing crude animal appetites.
Gustave Moreau
Saint George and the Dragon
Saint Georges et le dragon
1889-1890
The National Gallery, London
48. Saint George and the Dragon unusual ...
... the victorious knight lies back exhausted with his sword still
in his right hand, looking up to heaven, with the enormous
lizard-like body of the dragon dead at his feet
(Neither is there any sign of the princess ...)
Briton Rivière
Saint George and the Dragon
Saint Georges et le dragon
1908-1909
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Montréal
51. Saint George taming then slaying a dragon ...
An elegant, if bored-looking, princess already has a leash
around its neck.
Paolo Uccello
Saint George and the Dragon
Saint-Georges et le dragon
1470
National Gallery, London
55. the Archangel Michael slays the dragon, an allegorical
embodiment of evil, and casts it to earth ...
In this depiction, Raphael enriched the scene’s traditional
representation with ancillary scenes inspired by the
"Inferno" in the "Divine Comedy", in which Dante recounts
the punishment of hypocrites and thieves.
Raphael
Saint Michel terrassant le démon. dit le Petit Saint Michel
Saint Michael slaying the devil. Said the little Saint Michael
1502-1503
Musée du Louvre, Paris
58. … And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having
the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil,
or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him,
to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the
thousand years were ended.
After that, he must be set free for a short time.
Revelation chapter 20: verses 1-3
William Blake
The Angel Michael Binding Satan
L’archange Michel enchaînant Satan
1800
Harvard Art Museums, Fogg Museum, Cambridge
61. the "dragon miracle" ...
two men were killed at the Roman Forum by the breath of a dragon,
(here) the symbol of religious ignorance
Sylvester closed the dragon's throat so it would cause no further
harm and he then revived the victims
Maso di Banco
St. Sylvester Warns the Dragon and Revives Two Wizards Slain by the
Monster's Pestilential Breath, scene from the Stories of the Lives
of St. Sylvester and Constantine
Saint Sylvestre avertit le dragon et fait revivre deux sorciers tués
par le souffle pestilentiel du monstre, scène des récits de la vie de saint
Sylvestre et de Constantin
1332–1335 or 1336–1338
Basilica of Santa Croce, Bardi di Mangona Chapel
65. According to legend, Martha overcame a dragon, the Tarasque,
which had been terrorizing the people of Tarascon in Provence.
Half- animal and half-fish, the monster slew passersby and sank
ships.
The people asked Martha for help, and she went after the dragon.
She found him in the forest, sprinkled him with blessed water, and
had a cross held up in front of him.
... and the dragon stood still like a sheep while Martha tied him up
with her girdle ...
a bizarre story, the product of medieval mythology ?
It is now more or less accepted that this «monster» must have been
a crocodile brought back by Roman legionaries to Nîmes or Arles,
and which would have escaped.
Pietro de Lignis
St Martha tramples the dragon
Sainte Marthe piétine le dragon
1616
Private collection
68. At that time, in the forest along the Rhone between Aries and
Avignon, there was a dragon that was half animal and half fish,
larger than an ox, longer than a horse, with teeth as sharp as horns
and a pair of bucklers on either side of his body.
This beast lurked in the river, killing all those who tried to sail
by and sinking their vessels …
The people asked Martha for help, and she went after the dragon.
She found him in the forest in the act of devouring a man,
sprinkled him with blessed water, and had a cross held up in front
of him.
The brute was subdued at once and stood still like a sheep while
Martha tied him up with her girdle.
The dragon was called by the inhabitants “Tarasconus”; wherefore
in memory of this, that place is still called “Tarascon”…
(From the Golden Legend)
Poyet Jean
Book of Hours of Henry VIII, St. Martha Taming the Tarasque
Livre d'heures d'Henri VIII, Marthe et la Tarasque
1500
The Morgan Library & Museum
71. the saint triumphs over the monster …
Raphael
Saint Margaret
Sainte Marguerite
1518
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
75. Da Varagine provides two versions ...
the dragon was attacking the saint, and was about to devour
her, when she made the sign of the cross, thus vanquishing it
the dragon did manage to swallow St. Margaret; whilst she was
in the belly of the beast, the saint made the sign of the cross,
which caused the dragon’s stomach to burst open.
(... Da Varagine adds at the end that “This swallowing
and breaking of the belly of the dragon is said that
it is apocryphal.” )
Master of the Cobourg Rounds, Maitre des Ronds de Cobourg
Retable de Sainte Marguerite
Altarpiece of Saint Margaret
1478-1485
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon
79. Saint Margaret's dragon
Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece,
Maître du Retable de saint Barthélemy
Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece, Saint John the Evangelist and Margaret
Retable de saint Barthélemy, Saint Jean l'Évangéliste et sainte Marguerite
1500-1510
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Pinakothek, Munich
83. olga_oes
(hic sunt dracones)
Dragons in paintings
Le Dragon dans la peinture
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Music Two Steps From Hell Victory
created olga.e.
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