Albrecht Dürer

Figure III: from: The Apocalypse. A very good impression, of the Latin text edition of 1511, with the cracks in the block, printing a little dryly at left, still printing strongly elsewhere, trimmed just outside the borderline. The woodcut stands as an icon of early printmaking and is widely regarded as the most dramatic and dynamic composition within Albrecht Dürer’s Apocalypse series. In a tightly knit formation, the four riders surge violently forth from the heavens, thunder across the earth, and lay waste to all terrestrial life in their path. Death, slightly set apart from the main group, rides triumphantly upon a gaunt, aged mare, mockingly trampling over a fallen bishop. The horsemen represent the allegorical forces of Conquest, War, Famine, and Death, and appear in accordance with the opening of the first four of the seven seals as described in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 6:1–8). Notably, a peasant at the far right of the image resists the apocalyptic onslaught. With his raised hand, he touches the foreleg of one of the horses, his gaze fixed on the approaching figure of Death. Through this gesture, Dürer establishes a visual and conceptual connection between the agents of destruction and their victims, thereby intensifying the compositional tension of the scene (cf. P. Krüger, pp. 76–78). – The paper time-stained and with small brown spots; a tear c. 2 cm long on the left margin; isolated minor, tears on the edges; three small wormholes in the paper, and scattered minor repairs within the image. The upper right corner is bevelled. Faint traces of pencil marks in the upper right corner. On the reverse, remnants and traces of a former mounting, otherwise well preserved.