The four horsemen of the Apocalypse

Ex Libris: the printed image and the art of the book, 2010

In 1498, Albrecht Dürer published his illustrations for The Revelation of Saint John.

The final book of the Bible and one that foretold the end of the world, Durer’s visions of hellish creatures and catastrophe must have terrified his contemporaries—particularly those who held the common belief that the apocalypse was due occur in the year 1500.

And yet, it was the book of Revelation, dense with description of demons, beasts and angels, which allowed Durer’s artistic imagination free flight. Never before had the woodblock print been used to such incredible effect; The Apocalypse transformed both the graphic possibilities of the woodcut and the artistic potential of book illustration.

In The Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse, Dürer portrays the riders who, according to Saint John, will emerge at the earth’s end. Personified as a man, crazed and skeletal, Death rides upon a pale horse, flanked by his accomplices, Famine, War and Plague.

Elspeth Pitt, Assistant Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs