The Reception of Revelationin Art

Some ImportantMedieval Manuscripts

Beatus Manuscripts

Illustrate the Book of Revelation, printed together with the popular Commentary of the Spanish Monk Beatus of Liebana written in 776

Manuscripts date from 10th to 14th centuries

The Second Angel Blows His trumpet Rev 9:8-9: mountain falls into sea; sea of blood; ships destroyed

Saint-Sever Beatus, French, ca. 1075.Manuscript, 14x10 in. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.Nancy Grubb. Revelations. Art of the Apocalypse. New York: Abbeville, 1997. p. 18.

The Morgan Beatus

Anon. The Opening of the Sixth Seal, Rev 6:12-16: earthquake; sun black; hiding in caves

Morgan Beatus, Spanish, c. 950. Manuscript on parchment, 15 x 11 in. Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Nancy Grubb. Revelations. Art of the Apocalypse. New York: Abbeville, 1997. p. 48

Morgan Beatus: Revelation 9.1-

11, The Fifth Trumpet

Locusts like Horses

Morgan Beatus Fifth Trumpet

Cavalry

Revelation 9.7-10:“In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. . . They have tails like scorpions, with stingers”

Morgan BeatusThe Fifth Bowl Rev

16:10-11Bowl poured out on

kingdom of the beast

For other images from Morgan Beatus, see:http://www.themorgan.org/search.asp?zoom_query=morgan+beatus

Valadolid Beatus

Joachim of Fiore(ca. 1135-1202)

Figurae:The Book of Figures

The Concordia= Harmony of the Scriptures

The Three Ages

Futurist Interpretation of Revelation: parousia of Christ expected in 1260

Joachim of Fiore Figurae (Book of Figures)

First published ca. 1202 16 diagrams that

express in symbols and words Joachim’s

interpretation of the Bible, history and eschatology,

Revelation to John was important for this

exegesis of the Bible

See Kovacs-Rowland, Revelationpp. 17-20; 35-36; 228-230 etc.

Figura #11: The Three Trinitarian Circles

Figura #11: Text3 ages of history: ages of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Figura #2: an Eagle Tree12 tribes of Israel

Two Eagle pictures Ilustrate theconcordiae =agreements =

recurring patterns in the Bible

Figura #2: Text

The 12 Tribes of Israel

Figura #3: Eagle Tree of the

Priests = Church

Figura #3: Text

12 ChurchesOn left: the 7 churches of Revelation 2-3In middle: churches of Ephesus and Rome: the only 2 to survive

Concordia of 2 Eagles: OT & NT•These two figures show the historical parallels between the First "Status" = Age of the Patriarchs (more or less the People of Israel) and the Second Status or Age of Priests (more or less the People of the Church). Each Status has a "beginning" (with Adam and with Josiah=Osias), a full revelation after 22 generations (with Jacob and with Christ), and a conclusion after 42 generations (with Zorobabel and the coming generation of 1260 -- a generation being 30 years).

•Both trees show parallel branching: the 12 Tribes of Israel in Fig. 5 and the 12 ancient churches (including the 7 churches of Revelation) in Fig. 6. In both cases 10 fall into error and only two remain (Judah and Benjamin; Rome and Ephesus).

•The genealogy of the churches (= Status of the priests) begins with Ozias=Josiah because this eagle traces the history of the Second Status (Age of the Son) and that status is "initiated" with the reign of Ozias (who reformed worship), 22 generations before its revelation in Christ (with his two immediate predecessors Zachariah and John the Baptist).

More on 2 Eagle Trees

Both Eagle-Trees have 22 Generations. The Eagle of the First Status (Patriarchs) has 22 generations from its "initiation" with Adam to its revelation in Jacob (with his two immediate predecessors Abraham and Isaac).

Note also that the "unknown" generations after Christ and the generations after Jacob are of equal number. The two status have an equal duration. The last generation in the Priestly tree comes in the year 1260 which Joachim predicted for the second coming of Christ.

The Great Red Dragon: Revelation 12

Heads of the Dragon

#1 Herod#2 Nero#4 Mohammed#6 Saladin, Turkish ruler who captured JerusalemIn 1187

Tail of the Dragon,with Gog

Gog

Rev 20:7-8: “When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, in order to gather them for battle.” (cf. Ezek 38-39)

From a manuscript in Corpus ChristiCollege, Oxford

Figura 4The New

Jerusalem

See Kovacs-Rowland 222: this figure “portrays a monastic inspired heaven on earth, lived in community”

Figura 4: TextKovacs Rowland 228-30:*Illustrates Rev 21-22: aplan for the new society of the third age= Age of the Spirit

*4-square pattern of New Jerusalem (Rev 21:16) + suburbia

*Center: throne of God Columba= the dove: the Spirit

*Arms of cross= oratories for monks, associated with 4 living creatures of Rev 4:6-7

*Top: presided over by John’s eagle: oratory of John and all virgins = contemplative monks) *Bottom: Oratory of lay Christians

Corpus ChristiCollege, Oxford

Figura 4 The New

Jerusalem

The Flemish Apocalypse

Anon.Flemish artist. Current Location: Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

Source: Frederick Van der Meer, Apocalypse: Visions from the Book of Revelation in Western Art (New York: Alpine Fine Arts, 1978), pp. 202-232

First illustrated Apocalypse from the

Low Countriesca. 1400

Illustrates the whole of Revelation in 22

images + one image of episodes in the life

of John

Flemish Apocalypse #1:The Life of John

•John preaching at Ephesus

• his martyrdom in the cauldron of boiling oil

•his departure for Patmos

Revelation 1

The Son of Manamidst the

Candlesticks

John on Patmos

Flemish Apocalypse Rev

1-2

•The Son of Man: Rev 1:12-20

•Rev 2: The messages to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum and Thyatira

Flemish Apocalypse Rev 3

•John writing

• the messages to Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea (Rev 3)

Flemish Apocalypse Rev 7

•Lamb on Throne (Rev 7)4 living creatures

•Angels hold back 4 winds, earth and sea not to be harmed (Rev 7)

•Angel from rising sun holds a cross = the seal of the living God

•Sees great multitude holding palms (here a bishop, a cardinal, two kings and two others)

Flemish Apocalypse #5: Rev 11

•The Temple measured• the 2 Witnessesprophesy; are killed•people gloat and exchange presents•witnesses raised up•the Antichrist enthroned in the Temple.

Flemish Apocalypse #6: Rev 12

Flemish Apocalypse

Revelation 14

•The Lamb on Mount Zion(5 people for the 144,000)

•Messages of 3 angels: :“Fallen is Babylon the Great”; Angel pours out wine of God’s wrath

•The Harvest & wine press (rivers of blood)

Flemish Apocalypse: Revelation 17

An angel with a cross on his diadem, shows John the great prostitute on the beast. The monster puts its paws 'on the many waters'; little black serpents are crawling out of the woman's 'cups of abomination'; her forehead and crown cap with cheek flaps are exactly those of Queen Jeanne, after the fashion of the years 1370-80.

“One remarkable detail deserves attention. The heavily horned ram hands a crusader's banner to two armoured princes: they are two of the 'ten horns,' that is, 'kings', who in the end turn against the seductress (17:12;16). . . .”

[cont.]

Frederick Van der Meer, Apocalypse: Visions from the Book of Revelation in Western Art (New York: Alpine Fine Arts, 1978),p.222.

Flemish Apocalypse : Rev 17 (slide 2)

. . . “Below, one sees how the other eight princes are driving the now stripped and screaming courtesan with their cross-banner into the pool of brimstone and fire. (In the Flemish version the ten horns (of Rev 17.16 have become 'ten kings'.)

This looks like a tribute paid to the Christian princes of the day, and no wonder: their battle against the Great Turk, pathetically appropriate after the disaster of the Crusaders' army at Nicopolis (Bulgaria) in 1396, was still on everybody's mind.”

Frederick Van der Meer, Apocalypse: Visions from the Book of Revelation in Western Art (New York: Alpine Fine Arts, 1978), p. 228; 232.

REVELATION 19

Marriage of the Lamb

Angel in Suncalls birds toeat the flesh of kings

Rider on thewhite horse

Beastsdriven into the lake of fire

Flemish Apocalypse

Revelation 21

Kings bring tribute

Rev 21:24

Flemish Apocalypse

Revelation 22

John and the Angel:

“Worship God!”

River of Life. Flowing from the

throneTrees on either side