The Naked Woman and the Dragon (1553): Artwork and History

The Naked Woman and the Dragon (1553) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Allaert Claesz Netherlandish, c. 1500-1555.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

This enigmatic subject has never fully been explained. Unlike the princess in the Saint George roundel by Martin Schongauer (1956.887) on view in gallery 202a, this regal woman wards off the dragon with her scepter. In the vignette above, a stunned female entourage watches as she flies away on the beast’s back. The work’s large scale and perspectival background scene suggest it was intended as a design for a stained-glass window.

Object facts

• Title: The Naked Woman and the Dragon
• Date: 1553
• Artist attribution: Allaert Claesz Netherlandish, c. 1500-1555
• Place of origin: Holland
• Medium: Engraving in black on cream laid paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 23.1 × 23.1 cm (9 1/8 × 9 1/8 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.979

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.