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Contrasting Images of the Book of Revelation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Art$

Natasha F. H. O'Hear

Print publication date: 2011

Print ISBN-13: 9780199590100

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2011

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590100.001.0001

(p. 259 ) Appendix 3 Tables 1–5; Graph 1

Source:
Contrasting Images of the Book of Revelation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Art
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Table 1. Description of the illustrations comprising John's vita in the Lambeth Apocalypse MS 209, fos. 40v–45

Folio Reference

Brief description of John's actions

40v top

John preaches to three converts while Drusiana listens

40v bottom

Drusiana is baptized by John inside a church while armed pagans peer in

41 top

John brought before the proconsul at Ephesus

41 bottom

John put on a boat to be sent to the Emperor Domitian

41v top

John brought before Domitian

41v bottom

Two attendants roughly handle John while Domitian sits with his hand on his sword indicating judgement

42 top

John tortured in a cauldron of boiling oil with Domitian presiding

42 bottom

John emerges unharmed from the torture and Domitian orders him to be taken away into exile

42v top

John taken off to Patmos on a boat

42v bottom

John arrives back in Ephesus and is greeted by a group of figures who inform him of Drusiana's death

43 top

Raising of Drusiana by John

43 bottom

Atticus and Eugenius (converts) complain to John that they are sick of being dressed in rags; John turns their sticks into gems

43v top

John rebukes Atticus and Eugenius; now they are rich again they will succumb to the evil consequences of wealth

43v bottom

The people try to make John sacrifice to Diana; John prays for the temple to be destroyed which it is and the people become converts

44 top

John challenged to drink poison by proconsul. Power of poison demonstrated by testing it on two criminals who collapse

44 bottom

John drinks from the poisoned cup and is unharmed

44v top

Aristodemus takes John's cloak on the orders of the proconsul

44v bottom

Aristodemus raises the two criminals to life by touching them with John's cloak

45 top

Last mass celebrated by John

45 bottom

John lies in his tomb while his soul is carried up to heaven by angels

(p. 260 )

Table 2. Possible order in which the images for Dürer's Apocalypse Series of 1498 were produced

Actual order in Dürer's Apocalypse Series of 1498

Possible order of production based on analysis undertaken in Chapter 5

D1. The Martyrdom of St John

D7. The Seven Trumpets (Rev. 8, 9)

D2. The Vision of the Seven Candlesticks (Rev. 1: 12–20)

D13. The Worship of the Lamb (Rev. 14: 1–5)

D3. St John and the Twenty‐Four Elders (Rev. 4, 5)

D3. St John and the Twenty‐Four Elders (Rev. 4, 5)

D4. The Four Horsemen (Rev. 6: 2–8)

D14. The Whore of Babylon (Rev. 17–19)

D5. The Opening of the Fifth and Sixth Seals (Rev. 6: 9–17)

D10. The Apocalyptic Woman (Rev. 12: 1–6)

D6. The Four Angels Holding the Winds (Rev. 7: 1–12)

D8. The Four Avenging Angels (Rev. 9: 13 ff.)

D7. The Seven Trumpets (Rev. 8: 1– 9: 12)

D11. St Michael Fighting the Dragon (Rev. 12: 7–9)

D8. The Four Avenging Angels (Rev. 9: 13–19)

D12. The Two Beasts (Rev. 13)

D9. St John Devouring the Book (Rev. 10: 1–11)

D1. The Martyrdom of St John

D10. The Woman Clothed with the Sun (Rev. 12: 1–6)

D4. The Four Horsemen (Rev. 6: 2–8)

D11. St Michael Fighting the Dragon (Rev. 12: 7–9)

D5. The Opening of the Fifth and Sixth Seals (Rev. 6: 9–17)

D12. The Two Beasts (Rev. 13)

D6. The Four Angels Holding the Winds (Rev. 7: 1 ff.)

D13. The Worship of the Lamb (Rev. 14: 1–5)

D15. The Binding of Satan and the New Jerusalem (Rev. 20: 1–3; 21–2)

D14. The Whore of Babylon (Rev. 17–19)

D9. St John Devouring the Book (Rev. 10: 1–11)

D15. The Binding of Satan and the New Jerusalem (Rev. 20: 1–3; 21–2)

D2. The Vision of the Seven Candlesticks (Rev. 1: 12–20)

  • Notes: First Stage: D7, D13, D3.

  • Second Stage: D14, D10, D8, D11, D12, D1.

  • Third Stage: D4, D5, D6.

  • Fourth Stage: D15, D9, D2.

(p. 261 )

Table 3. Summary of the visual and textual content of Cranach's Passional Christi und Antichristi of 1522

Image pair

Life of Christ (brief description of image)

Life of the Antichrist‐as‐Pope (brief description of image)

Commentary

1

Christ fleeing the Jews as they attempt to make him king

The Pope shown defending his claims to secular rule with canon and sword

Melanchthon cites the forged Donation of Constantine

2

Christ crowned with thorns

Pope crowned with triple tiara

3

Christ washes feet of disciples

Pope presents his foot for kings and princes to kiss

Rev. 13: 15 cited: Pope compared with the Beast of Rev. 13

4

Christ pays authorities their dues

Pope demands exemption for his followers

5

Christ among the poor and lame

Pope presides over a tournament

6

Christ tells followers to take up their crosses

Pope depicted being carried in a sedan chair

Melanchthon says (ironically) that this is the Pope taking up his cross of adversity

7

Christ preaching the Kingdom of God

The Pope feasting in a royal manner

8

Christ's birth: the humble nativity scene

The Pope depicted armed and ready to wage war

The Pope willing to spill Christian blood in order to ensure clerical possession of property

9

Christ's peaceful entry into Jerusalem on an ass

Pope riding in state on a military steed flanked by soldiers

10

Christ tells his disciples that they should go to the poor

Contrasted with the papal command that no bishop should preside over anything but a great town

11

Christ's disciples reprimanded for eating with unclean hands; Christ says that it is not observance of external laws that matters

The Pope shown seated on his throne issuing commands about such external laws

Papal law wholly concerned with external signs of religious observance

12

Christ drives the money changers from the Temple

The Pope presides over a sale of indulgences within a church

Citation: 2 Thess. 2: 4 which says that the ‘man of sin’ sits in God's Temple displaying himself as God

13

Christ's Ascension

The Pope is dispatched downwards to hell

Citations: 2 Thess. 2: 8 and Rev. 19: 20–1 (The Beast is thrown in the Lake of Sulphur)

(p. 262 )

Table 4. A Summary of the main polemical details in Cranach's Apocalypse illustrations for Luther's New Testament of September 1522

Image Number

Chapter

Polemical Details

C11

Rev.11: 1–8: The Beast devours the Two Witnesses

The Beast wears the papal triple tiara

C13

Rev. 13: The Two Beasts, one from the land, the other from the sea

The Sea‐Beast is wearing a monk's cowl

C16

Rev. 15–16: The Bowls of wrath emptied, one of them over the Dragon

The Dragon wears the papal triple tiara

C17

Rev. 17: The Whore of Babylon

The Whore of Babylon wears the papal triple tiara

C18

Rev. 18: The Destruction of Babylon

‘Babylon’ is clearly recognizable as Rome and those who lament her fall are depicted as canonists and benefice‐holders

(p. 263 )

Table 5. A Comparison of Dürer's and Cranach's Apocalypse Series

Dürer's Apocalypse 1498/1511

Cranach's Apocalypse illustrations, 1522

Book of Revelation chapter reference

D1. The Martyrdom of St John

(Small woodcut of John receiving his vision from the angel)

1: 1

D2. The Vision of the Seven Candlesticks

C1. The Vision of the Seven Candlesticks

1: 12–20

D3. St John and the Twenty‐Four Elders

C2. St John and the Twenty‐Four Elders

4–5

D4. The Four Horsemen

C3. The Four Horsemen

6: 2–8

D5. The Opening of the Fifth and Sixth Seals

C4. The Opening of the Fifth Seal

6: 9–17

C5. The Opening of the Sixth Seal: The Great Earthquake and the Day of Wrath

6: 12–17

D6. The Four Angels Holding the Winds

C6. The Four Angels Holding the Winds

7: 1–12

D7. The Seven Trumpets

C7. The Seven Trumpets

8: 1–9: 12 (Last trumpet blown in 11: 15)

C8. The Fifth Trumpet, Plague of Locusts

9: 1–6

D8. The Four Avenging Angels

C9. The Four Avenging Angels (Sixth Trumpet)

9: 13–19

D9. St John Devouring the Book

C10. St John Devouring the Book

10: 1–11

C11. The Two Witnesses

11: 1–13

D10. The Apocalyptic Woman

C12. The Apocalyptic Woman

12: 1–6

D11. St Michael Fighting the Dragon

12: 7–9

D12. The Two Beasts

C13. The Two Beasts

13

D13. The Worship of the Lamb

C14. The Worship of the Lamb

14: 1–5

C15. The Harvest of the Earth

14: 14–20

C16. The Angels with the Seven Bowls

15–16

D14. The Whore of Babylon

C17. The Whore of Babylon

17

C18. The Fall of Babylon

18

C19. The Rider on the White Horse and the Defeat of Satan

19–20

D15. The Binding of Satan and the New Jerusalem

C20. The Binding of Satan

20: 1–3; 21–2?

C21. The New Jerusalem

21–2

Notes:

Bold Font: appears in the Cranach series only.

Italic Font: appears in the Dürer series only.

(p. 264 )
Appendix 3 Tables 1–5; Graph 1

Graph 1. The Seven Case Studies plotted on the Kovacs/Rowland Grid