Lucifer Renascens or Renaissance representations of the devil

. T here are a huge number of prints and drawings that represent the devil, the devil, Lucifer, as you please, "during the Renaissance. Collecting them as I have time, I thought it a good time to leave you here some of them. As always, to see the images to a larger size or to travel in high resolution without the text help you, all you have to do is click on them. The comments and descriptions of them are in the header and not the end.

We can start with the engraving on the Apocalypse at the end of the fifteenth century made Albrecht Dürer. In the picture you can see in the lower left chained an angel Lucifer, at the top, another angel teaches San Juan a city that represents the new Jerusalem. The image is part of a series that Durer made between 1497 and 1498 on the subject.

The following image was made by an anonymous engraver and printed in 1525 by Dirk Jacobsz. Represents the temptation of Christ. The devil is depicted with angel wings, tail and pointed ears.

The representation of the devil served on numerous occasions, as we shall see, to illustrate policy issues. In this picture, you see the celestial Protestant church confronted with the Catholic Church on earth. Two Protestant priests and their congregations are surrounded by clouds in the foreground. In the background, the Antichrist is on his throne surrounded by clerics. The engraving is part of a series of 48 that were prepared to accompany the translation Agricultural Lorenzo had made the Commentary on the Apocalypse of Sebastian Meyer. It is dated in 1548 and his printer was Matthias Gerung.

The following image is an engraving of Dürer review we have seen above. This shows two angels chained to two separate earth and the New Jerusalem in the background. Etching is number 21 in a series conducted between 1546 and 1555 by Jean Duvet to illustrate the Apocalypse (in this case, Chapter XX).

Duvet also printed in 1555 an image outside this range representing the revelation of St. John the Evangelist. In the center of the image can be viewed by taking a revelation Evangelista, a book with the first line of his gospel on his legs. At his feet is the devil falling into a pit. At the same height, the sides are represented the other three evangelists. At the top of the Trinity. The devil is represented as a winged serpent and claws.

Between 1544 and 1558, Matthias Gerung printed a series of prints illustrating the life of the Antichrist, in 1565 ornaments add them to images and texts from which I abstract here. Gerung printed almost simultaneously with another series illustrating the Apocalypse, completely independent. Pick two images are particularly interesting. The first is the birth of the Antichrist. It appears in the center of the picture, sitting on a throne, a woman in labor with their heads covered and baring her breasts, her vagina out a devil and a baby in flames, two women attending midwife both sides and grab the child, while the devil goes by itself. To the right of the image we see two midwives holding another infant, breast-feeding one of them on a brazier. The order represents the royal throne, following somehow the text of Revelation.

The second image in this series I've chosen is the baptism of the Antichrist. In clear key reform, the Antichrist is on his head a papal tiara. It is surrounded by a group of demons dressed as priests and nuns. The baptismal font is on fire and the priest performing the ceremony has donkey ears, legs, wings and claws and holds a nerdiludium or backgammon table (no joking) that symbolizes the Anglican church.

The following two pictures that I bring were made in 1584 and 1585 by Marten de Vos, printed and published by Hieronymus WIERIX in Sadeler Justus presses. The reason for both is the same: the maturity of the devil. But it is interesting how the same writer represents two very different ways the devil. In the first image we have San Miguel stepping on the tail of the devil remains in the soil. This is an angel with a serpent's tail. Of course, the representation depends directly on the Revelation: "There was a great battle in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. Also, the Dragon and his angels fought, but did not prevail and there was no place in Heaven for them. Was hurled the dragon, the old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world: he was cast to earth and his angels with him. "(Rev. XII: 7-9)

The second picture of Marten de Vos is Christ overcoming the Devil. In this case, instead of hybrid between an angel and serpent we are more traditional representation of the devil. Christ remains in the cross over him, in token of his crucifixion and redemption of the sins of Christianity, reflecting the expiry of original sin, the Devil's hand is a snake biting an apple. At the same time, the devil is depicted with a skull that represents the mortal life and maturity.

The devil, of course, also has a direct intervention in daily life. A good example, while a display of creative imagination, is in the three images Hendrik Goltzius devoted to the topic of marriage (1595). In the image dedicated to the marriage of convenience, the liaison official who is Satan. This is reflected with crowbars, eagle claws instead of hands, female breasts, horns and a hood covering her head.

In the same year that Goltzius made his engraving, an old acquaintance of ours, Theodor de Bry , makes his alphabet, Künstliche New Alphabet , in line with the figurative alphabets of the Renaissance. Of course, De Bry devoted the letter A, being very beginning, to Genesis. It appears you can see how Eva, on your right, if in doubt, giving Adam the apple and the devil on the top face of a woman-with-iconography in line we saw in the first engraving of Marten de Vos.

Dated and engraver unknown, but probably made between 1590 and 1604 is the engraving that accompanied the concent of Scripture A Hugh Broughton. The picture shows a woman representing Rome crowned galloping on a seven-headed beast that represents the Empire and another seven-headed beast to the left which represents Satan. The pope is represented by an animal below them and the left can be a large insect crowned representing the pope. Below the image reads: "The empire of Rome, That serveth Crucified Our Lord and Satan in might and Hypocrisy Malthus is pictured in God's Word."

Besides all the prints we've seen, confined to the realm of morality, symbols or the biblical propaganda, some in the Renaissance Lucifer monstrous representations without any additional charge, except for recreation in the ugly. The best example is the famous engraving of Lodovico Cigoli, already made in the seventeenth century. This Lucifer is depicted as a monster with three heads and three pairs of wings, submerged to his chest in a lake devouring souls. The three-headed Lucifer reminds the Allegory of Prudence by Titian.

The image of Lucifer devouring souls has a very extensive tradition, which started almost at the beginning of the Middle Ages. You can see another similar to the previous image, linked to the representation of the seven deadly sins in the engraving Andrea de Cione conducted in the 60s of the fifteenth century

I can not close the library without referring to a series that is inside of my favorites. This is the illustrations that accompanied the 1674 edition of Milton's Paradise Lost. They were printed by Hendrik Eland and are true works of art. Just put three of them.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much I do. By the way, that all copyright belongs to the British Museum. I leave at your disposal, as always, the comments for you to make your recommendations, añadáis more images and resources on the subject or comenteis what you please.

Tagged as: Albrecht Dürer , Andrea de Cione , Antichrist , Apocalypse , art , devil , Dirk Jacobsz , engravings , Henrik Eland , Hieronymus WIERIX , Hugh Broughton , Jean Duvet , John Milton , Justus Sadeler , Lodovico Cigoli , Agricultural Lorenzo , Marten de Vos , marriage , Matthias Gerung , Renaissance , Sebastian Meyer , Theodor de Bry , Tiziano