The "Great Red Dragon Paintings," which Blake created between 1805 and 1810 in response to Thomas Butts' request for more than a hundred Biblical illustrations, include The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea. The apocalyptic description of "a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads" served as the primary inspiration for the Dragon paintings, which depict scenes from the Book of Revelation. 

The Incomparable Red Mythical serpent is an illustration of Blake's developed creative style, communicating the clarity of his fanciful creative mind in its sensational utilization of variety, and its crookedly expressive lines. According to the poet Kathleen Raine, religious art is characterized by Blake's linear style: Blake insists that "spirits," whether men or gods, ought to be "organized" within a "determinate and bounding form." Blake's assertion that "Art can never exist without Naked Beauty display'd" is also supported by this work. Beauty, particularly the beauty of the human body, always plays a fundamental and central role in Blake's art, even when depicting a destructive and aggressive subject: Indeed, Milton's Satan's human strength and vigor can be seen in the central, winged form.