BERMEJO DEMON

BERMEJO DEMON

"From its red eyes, horns and gaping mouth to its armoured and reptilian body, it forms a hideous echo of the warrior-angel, reminding the viewer that devils were once angels. Its contorted limbs are half snake and its whole torso is another face, with eyes for nipples and snakes slithering from a mouth in its belly. Its clawed tail even curls around the saint’s armoured leg. Composite demons – those with bodies made up of parts of many creatures – were a traditional way of visualising evil in medieval art."

The National Gallery, London

*This demon is inspired by the painting Saint Michael Triumphs over the Devil (1468) by Bartolomé Bermejo.

I'd done the first 10 demon drawings on a whim, and didn't really expect to do more. But then I came across this painting and it sparked my interest in doing another series.  

Unfortunately, I've never seen this painting in person but these demon interpretations are exactly my favorite kind of monster; an amalgam of disparate elements, kind of scary and kind of goofy. Here's another quote from The National Gallery, London: 

"The devil is made up of a combination of animals. Devils were often shown with more than one face, inspired by the description in the Bible of a seven-headed dragon. His torso is formed of a second face, and live snakes slither out of the gaping mouth in his stomach. There are reptilian heads at his elbows and at the joints of his bird-like back legs. His crocodile-like tail, which ends in a single claw, is wrapped around Saint Michael’s calf."