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Are there any Christian symbolic depictions Satan in art as a woman?

In Christian art, Satan has often been depicted as a man (male) or some evil looking monster out of man's imagination of what the Devil should look like.

In 2004, Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ had Satan portrayed as being androgynous by Rosalinda Celentano.

Rosalinda Celentano The Passion of the Christ

Rosalinda Celentano - The Passion of the Christ

My question is this: Prior to 1900, has there been any historical depictions of Satan in Christian art as a woman (female)?

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Lucas Cranach the Elder (c.1472 – 16 October 1553), a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and , made the following woodcut in 1523.It depicts Satan as half serpent and half woman!

adam and eve

Adam and Eve, Woodcut by Lucas Cranach, the Elder, 1523.

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I'm a high school art teacher with a particular interest in a similar question that may shed some light on yours. I've been researching the development of the image of satan in early, medieval, and renaissance Christian art and I have not run across a single image of Satan depicted as a woman. Now there are many images from these periods of the "Whore of Babylon" for instance in Durer's Apocalypse, or the Apocalypse Tapestry from medieval France, but that's kind of stretching it.

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  • Welcome to Christianity.SE. For a quick overview, please take the Site Tour. For more on what this site is all about, see: How we are different than other sites. Meanwhile, thanks for offering an answer here. Though the question is fairly open-ended, if you could provide references to any supporting links or literature, that would improve your answer. Commented Jun 2, 2017 at 14:32

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