The Great Red Dragon Paintings
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The Great Red Dragon Paintings are a series of watercolour paintings by the English poet and painter William Blake, painted between 1805 and 1810[1]. It was during this period that Blake was commissioned to create over a hundred paintings intended to illustrate books of the Bible. These paintings depict 'The Great Red Dragon' in various scenes from the Book of Revelation.
| “ | And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth. | ” |
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— (Rev. 12:3-4, KJV)
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[edit] The Paintings
[edit] The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun
In this painting, the Dragon is seen ready to devour the child of the pregnant woman as depicted in Revelation 12. Height: 54.6cm, Width: 43.2cm[2]
Housed at the Brooklyn Museum.
[edit] The Great Red Dragon and the Woman clothed with the Sun
This image is similar to The Great Red Dragon and the Woman clothed in Sun but shown from a different viewpoint. Height: 40.8, Width: 33.7cm[3]
Housed at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
[edit] The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea
Height: 40.1cm, Width: 35.6cm[4]
Housed at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
[edit] The Number of the Beast is 666
Height: 40.6cm, Width: 33.0cm[5]
Housed at the Rosenbach Museum & Library.
[edit] References in popular culture
- The character of the Great Red Dragon plays a prominent role in Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon and its film adaptations, Manhunter and Red Dragon, in which the primary antagonist Francis Dolarhyde has an obsession with the painting. Thomas Harris makes an error in citing "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun" as the object of Dolarhyde's fixation while describing "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun", specifically the Dragon's tail wrapping around the woman, a detail specifically accurate of the "in" painting. Manhunter shows the "with" painting as named in Harris's book whereas Red Dragon uses "in" as described by Harris.
- A mural-sized reproduction of "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in the Sun" appears painted on a wall in "Sight Unseen," an episode of The Flash. The television series' art direction is noted for regularly featuring elaborate, theme-specific murals.
- All of the paintings in the series were used for the artwork of the "Legend" CD trilogy (1997-2007) by the band Saviour Machine.
[edit] References
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