The drama of the Woman's story matches the complexity of the various interpretations of the characters and symbols present. The most common variations of the Woman view her as a representation of the Church, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit, or a simultaneous combination of the Church and Mary.
Depictions of the Woman of Revelation 12 in the Douce Apocalypse
In the sequential frames depicting her story in the Douce Apocalypse, the Woman's clothes evolve as her story progresses. She first wears a red dress with blue sleeves, then a red dress hemmed with gold underneath a blue cloak, and finally, a blue dress and cloak both edged in gold. The methodical movement towards increasingly blue garments implies that it was a conscious decision and strengthens the interpretation of the Woman as a combination of both the Church and the virgin Mary. As her relationship to the Child, usually interpreted as Christ, becomes more distant, her garments morph from dominantly red, a color associated with the redemptive blood of Christ, to entirely blue, the color now associated with the Holy Mother Mary. The Sun is a symbol closely associated with Christ, and therefore, the red of her garments visibly wraps her in Christ's redemptive blood, providing salvation for believers from darkness through His death and resurrection. As her garments transition to blue, she assumes her role as the Mother of the Church; thus, she could simultaneously symbolize the Church while embodying the Holy Mother Mary.
Depictions of the Woman of Revelation 12 in the Trinity Apocalypse
The Woman's clothing as depicted in the Trinity Apocalypse also morphs. When we first see her on folio 13r, she wears a desaturated red gown with a blue robe lined in red and with a green headscarf. The Sun is very stylized and sits behind her leaving her unprotected from the Dragon (McKitterick, 54). Her halo has 12 scalloped points finished with stars. The Child wears blue as she hands him to an angel, but then wears red as he is flown to heaven.
In the next scene, we see the Woman holding her hands to caress a baby who is not present. Her halo has morphed into the traditional circular gold motif, and she wears a gown of blue with a robe of red.
Skipping to folio 14r after the War in Heaven on 13v, we see her given her wings and fleeing from the Dragon's flood as she wears a gown of blue with a robe of blue powdered with gold motifs and a white headscarf. In the next scene, she wears the same garments as she sits protected in the wilderness, a portion of the narrative only depicted in the Trinity Apocalypse (McKitterick, 54).
Inspiration for the Woman:
Viewing the Woman from a modern gaze, her interpretative complications magnify. Is her story one of redemptive foreshadowing, or does she embody the expectations imposed onto women by fundamentalist interpretations of Biblical femineity, stripping women of any individual identity separate from her familial structure and closest male association (husband/father/etc)? Additionally, the representations of good and evil as personified through the Woman and the Whore of Babylon create a stark juxtaposition of feminine stereotypes and provoke questions concerning the role of grace in redemption. The association of red with the Whore of Babylon, both as told in Revelation as well as many medieval Apocalypse manuscripts, prompts one to consider if the transition of the color of her garments is truly representative of Christ's love or murmuring to women their "path to salvation" through maternal priorities. The choice to bring life into the world is the most significant power embodied in women and envied by men. As men are physically incapable of growing or biologically nourishing life, their power lies in the taking of life rather than the giving. Could the Red Dragon also foretell of the patriarchal systems that create such starkly controlled perceptions of women? John's narrow depiction of the Woman of Revelation 12 and the fluidity of the character's meanings create a narrative rife with interpretative complications.
Stitching the Woman:
I wanted to stitch her in a way that acknowledged the range of her symbolic interpretations. I am not looking to answer questions or pronounce that I have discovered her or her story's true meaning. In fact, that very complexity and the diverse range of interpretations of her makes her so intriguing to me. I am fascinated by each of the arguments for the different interpretations. Rather than providing answers or conclusions in my piece, I want to elicit further questions--- what could she mean to us today? Does she have to mean the same thing to me as she does to you? Has her symbolism changed or stretched since the creation of the Anglo-Norman manuscripts? Where does she fit in the Biblical perception and contemporary Christian definition of womanhood? The design decisions I made to stitch her, both technical and aesthetic, will hopefully open the viewers to question these concepts rather than present a specific interpretation.
The Padding:
Traditionally, the padding would have been accomplished with felt or string. Padded characters and deep relief did not become popular until later in medieval embroidery. Opus Anglicanum techniques are quite flat, and the depth in the composition is created through the intricacy of stitch. A natural loft happens when you see the slips stitched down or when a piece uses a velvet ground, but the actual stitching is all very much on one plane. Post Reformation on continental Europe, embroidery became increasingly more dimensional with deeply padded relief. I saw the choice to pad her as an opportunity to visually imply the contemporary viewpoint to the story that I have and included in my depiction of her story.
The traditional felt and string did not feel right for this piece as I wanted to pose a contemporary question with this conceptual opportunity. I chose to use dryer lent for the padding because of its relation to the domestic and its use in feminist art to represent the domestic space that women inhabit/are confined to. I wanted to ask--are women still fighting the same fights that women fought at the time these Apocalypse manuscripts were created? These depictions of the women in Revelation, both the actual descriptions in Revelation and how they were subsequently illustrated in art, are, to say the least, disconcerting. Having been raised in a strictly fundamentalist Christian way, I deeply understand the abusiveness and hurt that these confines cultivate. Yet, I am reminded that Jesus did not treat the women surrounding him during his time on earth with the same disdain and contempt seen in many ecclesiastical and secular environments.
Since becoming a mother myself, the work of Mary Kelly has grown in personal significance. I very much felt her work after the birth of my daughter as I was also a full-time professor in a very male-dominated university. Her Post-Partum Document, created in the later 1970s, felt like an embodiment of solidarity, encouraging me in the face of blatant misogyny. Her use of compressed lint in a number of different series continues her political and social conversations. Sadly these questions feel as relevant today as they were in the 1970s and, as Christine de Pizan's writing exposes, as these ideas of womanhood were in Medieval Europe. Why isn't motherhood seen as a strength, or let's start by not counting it as a deficit?
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| Finished lint padding. I then added a layer of cotton muslin to protect the lint padding from the gold and make sure I did not have any lint peaking through. |
Her Gown:
I specifically wanted a contemporary feel to the dress. I wanted the style of dress to be reminiscent of the drapiness of the medieval gowns, yet I did not want it to feel overtly medieval. I arrived at a simple, somewhat Grecian-style maternity gown. I rested her right hand on her belly to exaggerate the roundness and clearly communicate that she was still with Child.
I knew I wanted her dress to be a combination of gold and Marian blue. This saturated form of blue has become synonymous with Mary even if depictions of her in medieval art also see her wearing red and green. I chose to stitch her in a combination of gold and Marian blue. I wanted to make visual references to both interpretations that she could represent either the Church (gold) or Mary (blue) herself. This was the reason why I purposely chose not to do the couching in undersided couching or shaded bands of split stitch, which would have been more faithful to the style seen in Opus Anglicanum. The Or Nué couching such as I have stitched here is more true to later Medieval embroidery such as this Cope Hood that is part of the V&A's Collection. Notice how on this piece the Woman's bodice and overskirt are stitched in primarily colored silk in a bricking pattern with the shadows stitched in Or Nué.
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| Couching the passing down using three different shades of Marian blue silk. Here you can see the layer of muslin I stitched down to protect the dryer lint padding from the padding. |
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| Couching complete and starting to plunge the ends to the back. |
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| Ends plunged to back and ready to be tied down. You can see the different blues much more clearly on the back and I love the stitch pattern created. |
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| All ends plunged and tied back. |
I used tiny rows of silk split stitch for her face and arms to be more true to the Opus Anglicanum references. I used a combination of silk split stitch and single silver-plated passing couched for her hair. Several characters are depicted with this style of hair on the Burgo de Osma Retable and Altar Front at the Art Institute of Chicago, and it is a way of representing hair that I think is beautiful. I chose white for her hair to tie her to the Son of Man as described in Revelation 1: 13-18 .
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| Completed Woman ready to be appliquéd to velvet. |
Halo or Crown?:
In the Douce Apocalypse, the presence of a golden halo that contains 12 stars, as mentioned in Revelation 12:1, lends credence to the interpretation that the maker of the Douce Apocalypse was projecting the identity of Mary onto the Woman of Revelation 12. The Trinity Apocalypse's scalloped halo with stars was an interesting interpretation that broke with the more common gold circular motif used for halos. Common interpretations of the 12 stars include their symbolizing the 12 apostles, the 12 tribes of Israel, or the 12 Zodiac signs. Christine de Pizan's less common interpretation, and a connection described by Bonaventure, was that the 12 stars represented the 12 joys of Paradise (Kennedy, 284), foretelling of the joys to come after the Last Judgement.
This creates an interpretation inclusive of the 12 tribes and 12 apostles as Revelation 21 tells of the "12 gates guarded by 12 angels. And the name of the 12 tribes of Israel written on the gates… The wall of the city had 12 foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb" (Revelation 21: 12-14, NLT). Additionally, the interpretation of the 12 stars of her crown foreshadowing the 12 joys of Paradise creates a connection between the Woman of Revelation 12 and the Bride of Christ of Revelation 21. It encourages a focus on the redemptive power of Christ and the glory to come for believers in the New Jerusalem. This connection also implies the Woman as the New Eve and further illustrates the grace and redemption of God (Le Frois 1958, 94).
Finally, I added a silver crescent moon padded with felt and stitched with kid leather appliqué, pearl purl outline, and chipping. Her silk split stitched foot barely peaks below her gown to step upon the moon.
A Note About Inspirations
Because this was a contemporary view of this story and these inspirations from my viewpoint, I did not feel that I had to remain wholly true to one specific historic style. So, though I reference Opus Anglicanum and later medieval embroidery, I did not feel like I had to choose between them. In the same way that my view of this story is affected by countless influences throughout my life, and yours will be different because of your influences, the technical inspirations are a blend of various medieval European ecclesiastical embroidery styles. The purpose of this project was not historical recreation. It is a historically-inspired interpretation.
A few excellent talks:
A. G. Hassall and W. O. Hassall, The Douce Apocalypse: with an introduction and notes (Faber, 1961).
Belt, Shawn. “Plant Fact Sheet - Golden Ragwort.” United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Services, USDA, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_PLANTMATERIALS/publications/mdpmcfs8097.pdf.
Bodleian Libraries, Bodleian Library MS. Douce 180, April 2021.
David McKitterick, Nigel J. Morgan, Ian Short, and Teresa Webber, The Trinity Apocalypse (British Library: London, 2005).
“MS. Douce 180,” Medieval Manuscripts, April 2021.
Nigel J. Morgan, The Douce Apocalypse: picturing the end of the world in the Middle Ages (Bodleian Library, 2007).
“Revelation 12: NLT Bible: YouVersion,” NLT Bible | YouVersion.
“Revelation 21: NLT Bible: YouVersion,” NLT Bible | YouVersion.
Richard K. Emmerson, Apocalypse Illuminated: the visual exegesis of revelation in medieval illustrated manuscripts (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2018).
This is really wonderful - the thought that has gone into it, and the resultant design choices. I'm particularly impressed that you managed to create a "modern medieval" dress design!
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