The Seven Angels with the Trumpets, from: The Apocalypse

Details

ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
The Seven Angels with the Trumpets, from: The Apocalypse
woodcut, circa 1497-98, on laid paper, watermark Tower with Crown and Flower (Meder 259), a good impression from the Latin text edition of 1511, printing a little dryly and unevenly in places, with thread margins or trimmed to the borderline on three sides, a thread margin below, some skilful repairs and pale staining
Block & Sheet 391 x 276 mm.

Literature

Bartsch 68; Meder, Hollstein 170; Schoch, Mende, Scherbaum 118

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Probably the earliest and the most crowded composition from the Apocalypse, this features many details derived from the illustrations of the Quentell Bible printed in Cologne in 1480, and the eagle flying down the centre, crying 'woe', is borrowed from the Grüninger Bible.
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, the silence dominated Heaven for half an hour. The woodcut depicts the vision of God distributing the trumpets to the angels. The first four trumpet calls sound in the centre over a landscape beset by catastrophe: a star falls on the left, the sea and the earth are burning.

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