Currently not on view
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,
1498
Early in his career, Dürer displayed a remarkable ability to fuse the worlds of nature and the imagination. This skill is exemplified in this print and in Saint Eustace (shown nearby), both of which represent visionary experiences. The Four Horsemen is one of fifteen large woodcuts in Dürer’s Apocalypse series, published in 1498 when midmillennial fears of impending doom were widespread throughout Europe. Unlike previous illustrators of the last book of the Christian Bible, which describes Saint John’s revelation of the end of days, Dürer chose to display the first four representatives of God’s vengeance not sequentially but as a formidable galloping phalanx trampling all in their path. Three of the horsemen—Conquest, War, and Famine—ride on sturdy steeds, while a skeletal nag, bearing Death, keeps step, just ahead of the gaping mouth of Hell.
Information
1498
Europe, Germany, Nuremburg
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