Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 5344
  • Author(s)/Creator(s):
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Hyr Wombe Insaciate: The Iconography of the Feminised Monster [The author examines woodcuts and a painting in which the monsters are both feminized and sexualized. The author argues that they refer to a type of femininity that is both sexual and bestial. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: Studies on Medieval and Early Modern Women: Pawns or Players?  Edited by Christine Meek and Catherine Lawless.  Four Courts Press, 2003.  Pages 177 - 196.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Art History- Painting Dragons in Art Femininity in Art Iconography Monsters in Art Sexuality in Art Women in Art Woodcuts
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Germany
  • Century: 15- 16
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: Seven figrues. Figure One Peter Gottland, St. George and the Dragon from "Allegory of the Triumph of the New Faith Over the Old" (1552). Figure Two Lucas Cranach, "The Fall of Man," woodcut, late fifteenth century. Figure Three Wenzel of Olmutz, "The Papal Ass," woodcut, circa 1500. Figure Four "Hercules at the Crossroads," woodcut, from Sebastian Brant's "Narrenschiff" (1498). Figure Five "Luther's Game of Heresy" (1535). Figure Six Albrecht Altdorfer, "St. George and the Dragon," woodcut, 1511. The dragon has breasts. Figure Seven Leonard Beck, "St. George Fighting with the Dragon," circa 1515 (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). The dragon is lying on its back showing an opening near its tail. Next to it is an infant dragon apparently dead.
  • Table:
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation:
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2003.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 1851827749