Revelation of St. John: St. Michael fighting the Dragon (1511): Art, History and Details

Revelation of St. John: St. Michael fighting the Dragon (1511) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This woodcut comes from a series of 15 scenes from the Apocalypse. Dürer drew upon late northern Gothic traditions infused with the reality of spiritual events, biblical interpretation, and dense composition, as well as careful attention to naturalistic details of flora and fauna. He interprets Saint John’s visions by giving them a convincing physical existence. This scene depicts the war in heaven, a final battle between good and evil. Saint Michael and his angels defeat the dragon (Satan) and the other fallen angels, now morphed into repulsive demons, casting them into hell.

Object facts

• Title: Revelation of St. John: St. Michael fighting the Dragon
• Date: 1511
• Creator attribution: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: woodcut
• Dimensions: Sheet: 39.2 x 28.2 cm (15 7/16 x 11 1/8 in.); Mat Size: 48.9 x 36.3 cm (19 1/4 x 14 5/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1922.94.13

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.