"St. Michael's Fight with the Dragon"

“St. Michael's Fight Against the Dragon” is a woodcut done by Albrecht Durer in 1498. It is a part of a series of woodcuts called the Revelation of St. John. In the center of this woodcut is St. Michael striking the dragon with is spear and behind him are other saints shooting the dragon with their arrows and spears. Underneath the heavenly battle is an uninterrupted, peaceful earth. The war in the sky signifies the fight between good and evil. It shows that all is not right in heaven (Gombrich 344-5).
During the time that Durer created this work of art, the Catholic church's corruption had been exposed. Many of the rich people were using indulgences to reduce their time in purgatory rather than actually having faith or performing good deeds. While this happened, the priests who received the indulgences, who were suppose to be using the money for the church, used it for personal gain and luxuries. People were losing faith and did not know what to believe in anymore. For so long people had looked to God for perfection and now that the people they once looked up to had failed them, they were lost. On top of that many of the people expected the apocalypse to take place during their lifetime. This woodcut represents not only that apocalyptic event, but the spiritual battle taking place in heaven between those who rightfully deserved their place in heaven, and those who bought their way to heaven (Gombrich 345).
For years, the people looked up to the church, especially because most were uneducated and did not think much for themselves. People looked to their church officials to help them gain perfection spiritually, essentially go to heaven. To do this usually they had to do good works. After a while, the church made the people purchase indulgences to gain spiritual perfection. When people started to realize this they began to doubt the church and God. People no longer looked to gain spiritual perfection, but they began to look within themselves once again and find human perfection. They looked to science to complete their every humanly possible goals, which they thought could eventually be immortality. This woodcut shows the breakdown of the goal to achieve spiritual perfection and the rise of human perfection seen through other paintings like “Plowing the Nivernais” by Rosa Bonheur.