St Michael fighting the dragon

Albrecht Dürer
Germany
1471 – 1528

St Michael fighting the dragon
plate 11 from 'The Apocalypse'
c.1497
woodcut on paper
Place made
published 1498, Nuremberg, Germany
Medium
woodcut on paper
Dimensions
39.3 x 27.4 cm (sheet)
Credit line
Bequest of David Murray 1908
Accession number
084G1134
Signature and date
Signed in block bot.c. "AD" in monogram. Not dated.
Provenance
David Murray (b.1829 - d.1907), Adelaide
Catalogue raisonne
B.72; M.174 ; Holl./G 174 (2b) ; S.W.48 ; TIB v.10, p.342, .342, .272 (Latin edition 1498)
Media category
Print
Collection area
European prints

  • WALL LABEL: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 2020

    Above a peaceful landscape a war rages in heaven between St Michael and the dragon. Eventually, ’the great dragon was thrown down, that serpent of old that led the whole world astray, whose name is Satan, or the devil – thrown down to the earth, and his angels with him’ (Revelation12:7–9).     

     

    In Dürer’s Apocalypse series the dragon symbolises the devil; however, Dürer has depicted the dragon/devil in various forms. Here, in plate 11, he appears as a multi-headed creature in a celestial battle with St Michael and his angels, and in the final image (plate 15), for instance, as a scaly, claw-footed, winged creature with drooping breasts.  

     

    The devil or Satan is one of the most frequently depicted ’monsters’ in European printmaking. He is a ’shape shifter’, who has been represented in many guises, depending on the narrative being represented.   

     

    Julie Robinson, Senior Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs

     

  • The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 29 February 2020 – 16 August 2020

  • Five Centuries of Genius: European Master Printmaking

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 5 May 2000 – 2 October 2000

  • Durer and German Renaissance Printmaking, 1996-1997

    Cairns Art Gallery, 28 March 1996 – 11 May 1997
    Art Gallery of South Australia, 6 December 1996 – 23 February 1997
    Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, 20 June 1997 – 3 August 1997
    Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, 13 August 1997 – 28 September 1997
    Newcastle Art Gallery, 18 October 1997 – 30 November 1997
    Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, 17 March 1999 – 16 May 1999