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Revelations
Art of the Apocalypse
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THE DEVIL AND THE
DAMNED
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And Isaw an
angel come down from heaven, having the key of the
bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on
the
dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound
him a
thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit.
Revelation 20:1-3 |
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THE BOOK OF REVELATION IS THE ONLY PLACE IN
THE BIBLE WHERE THE
devil is explicitly identified as a serpent. Tradition may link the
snake in the garden of Eden with the devil, but Genesis itself makes
no such connection. In fact, the devil rarely appears in the Old
Testament, and when he does, it is in the guise of Satan (from the
Hebrew word meaning "adversary"), who functions as an instrument of
God (as when he tests Job) rather than as a rebellious being
challenging God's authority.
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Albrecht Durer
Knight, Death and the Devil
1513 |
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Raphael (1483-1520)
Saint Michael Trampling the Satan
1518
Musee du Louvre, Paris |
But in Revelation, the devil is a powerful foe, battling the forces
of good in an attempt to take control of the world and its souls. He
makes his first appearance in the book as the great red dragon we've
already encountered menacing the woman clothed with the sun. The
next verse notes that "his tail drew the third part of the stars of
heaven, and did cast them to the earth" (12:4)—a reference to the
belief that when Satan fell from heaven, he took with him the
one-third of the angels (stars often symbolize angels in biblical
writings) who had joined his unsuccessful revolt against God.
The battle between good and evil is vividly described in Revelation
as a physical struggle between the archangel Michael and the devil
(embodied as either a man or a dragon). Not surprisingly, throughout
the centuries this one-on-one combat has been a favorite of artists,
who have relished portraying the details of the two antagonists.
Michael is invariably shown prevailing, with the still-struggling
devil pinned below his feet or skewered on his sword.
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Raphael (1483-1520)
Saint Michael
1505
Musee du Louvre, Paris |
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So despised and feared
was Satan that his face was often scratched out in manuscript
illuminations; see, for example, below.
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Cimabue, Giotto and
others
Satan Swallows the Damned,
from The Last Judgment
1220
Mosaic. Cupola of the Baptistery, Florence |
 Satan,
from The Last Judgment
Byzantine mosaic
Late 12th century
Cathedral, Torccello, Italy |
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Although the devil and his angels are "cast out" after Michael
defeats them, this conquest does not guarantee Satan's final defeat.
Having returned to earth, he wages war on all the offspring of the
woman whose child he had tried to steal, then teams up with the
beast from the sea to lure the populace into idolatry. After Babylon
falls, an angel locks the devil in the bottomless pit, where he
remains for the thousand years of Christ's earthly reign. After his
release at the end of the millennium, the devil gathers his forces
for the final battle. They are summarily defeated, and the devil is
cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, from which he can never
escape.
This fiery domain becomes the hell into which sinners are
plunged on Judgment Day—a subject savored by artists from
anonymous Byzantine artisans to Hieronymus Bosch and Peter
Paul Rubens.
Although Revelation says that the devil "shall be tormented
day and night for ever and ever," in representations of hell
it is he and his demons who become the enthusiastic
tormentors. Satan, holding Antichrist on his lap in a
blasphemous variant on the Madonna and Child, is the
undisputed king of his flame-filled realm in the
twelfth-century mosaic of hell in Torcello, Italy. The entrance to the devil's
sul-furous dominion was often depicted as an animated hellmouth—a
grotesque and toothy portal to the infernal regions.
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 Rohan Hours
Saint Michael
1414 |
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 Guido Reni
Saint Michael Trampling the Satan |
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