The Woman and the Dragon—The Formation of the Image of the <i>Mulier Amicta Sole</i> in the Revelation of St. John in Western Medieval Art

Abstract

This article aims to study the visual tradition of the Woman Clothed with the Sun from chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation in medieval times, in particular the formation, continuity and variations of the various iconographic types. For this purpose, we firstly approach the main sources, both the Book of Revelation and the exegesis or interpretation of the Church Fathers. Secondly, we analyse the first preserved representations (ninth to twelfth centuries) that correspond to examples of the Italian and French tradition and the Beatus from the Iberian tradition, works that, most likely, followed original models from the first centuries of Christianity that have now disappeared. This section is followed by the study of representations from between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries and the importance of the Anglo-Norman Apocalypses. The article closes with an iconological section in which the importance of the mulier as an ecclesiological symbol and, subsequently, its Marian interpretation is pointed out.

Keywords

• <i>Beatus</i>
• Christian iconography
• medieval miniatures
• St. John in Patmos