The Beast with Seven Heads (n.d.): Artwork and History

The Beast with Seven Heads (n.d.) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Jean Duvet French, 1485-after 1561.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

John’s vision from Revelation 13 pits the Lamb of God against a seven-headed, ten-horned apocalyptic beast of epic proportions. While an angel runs interference to warn the credulous earthly population against worshipping the beast, it is only the true believers in Christ who will survive. Duvet’s dense composition of quivering scales and genuflecting masses breaks open only at the top to reveal the true Christian sacrificial symbol, the Lamb. Bearing the attributes of the evangelist, this mild and just creature is both the apocalypse’s antithesis and antidote.

Object facts

• Title: The Beast with Seven Heads
• Date: n.d.
• Artist attribution: Jean Duvet French, 1485-after 1561
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Plate: 30 × 29 cm (11 13/16 × 11 7/16 in.); Sheet: 34.7 × 25.3 cm (13 11/16 × 10 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.1054

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.