The Woman of the Apocalypse and the Seven-Headed Dragon

A woman stands centered, wearing a long dark robe with decorative trim; behind her head is a large, circular radiating solar nimbus, and she stands upon a white crescent moon. She reaches out with one hand to grasp the arm of a small, nude child standing in the air before her, while the other hand is extended toward the beast. Below and to the right, a large dragon with seven serpentine heads and green-scaled wings arches its body, exhaling a thin trail of flame from its primary mouth. In the background, a Romanesque church structure stands against a horizontal banded sky of blue and pink.

This illumination is a visual representation of the Book of Revelation 12:1–5, depicting the struggle between the 'woman clothed with the sun' and the 'great red dragon' that seeks to devour her child. It belongs to the Ottonian tradition of manuscript production, specifically the Bamberg Apocalypse, which reflects the high status of imperial patronage under the Holy Roman Empire.