THE WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN: LITERARY AND ICONOGRAPHIC RECEPTION OF REVELATION 12

Abstract

This paper analyzes the literary and iconographic reception of the figure of the Woman clothed with the sun described in Revelation 12, considering its symbolic productivity across different cultural traditions. Drawing on the framework of biblical and literary studies, it examines ancient, patristic, medieval, Kabbalistic, and New Spanish reinterpretations of the apocalyptic motif, with particular attention to its projection in the iconography of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The article demonstrates how a textual figure from Revelation was reinterpreted in Marian, doctrinal, and political terms, eventually becoming an image of great cultural efficacy in New Spain. In addition, it considers some contemporary projections of this motif in literature, and Latin American art. From Jacques Rancière’s perspective, these reinterpretations can be understood as literary displacements within the “distribution of the sensible,” in which biblical images and narratives acquire new forms of visibility, reading, and historical significance.