The Battle of the Angels

From Apocalipsis cum Figuris (Apocalypse)

Illustrated by Albrecht Dürer

Dürer's The Battle of the Angels depicts one element of the ecstatic vision experienced by St John.

Mrs Charles W Heaton (The History of the Life of Albrecht Durer of Nurnberg with a Translation of His Letters and

Journal and Some Accounts of His Work: Seeley, Jackson and Halliday, London; 1881), in an early comprehensive

biographical work, provides the following description of this wonderful illustration:

This is one of the most celebrated compositions of the series. The four angels, armed

with great swords, hew down in ferocious vengeance all ranks of men alike. An emperor

and a pope, as in the former illustration, are amongst the number of the slain, and the

beggar's rags protect him no better than the emperor's purple. 'The angels in this cut,'

Von Eye remarks, 'appear more like furies from out a Greek tragedy than members of

that holy company of spirits with which our imagination peoples heaven. But yet even

in this respect the artist keeps strictly to the idea of the Evangelist, whose angels are truly
destroying angels, driven on by their very nature towards murder.' The riders on the

lion-headed horses occupy the space immediately above the earth, and the fire, smoke,

and brimstone that issue from their mouths destroy those whom the angels have not

killed. God the Father, a half-figure surrounded by the rainbow, sits above ; to the right

and left are the angels of the fifth and sixth trumpets. The sense of movement in this

plate is something extraordinary. You feel the rush of those awful lion-headed beasts,

and hear the wild tumult of the doomed earth, and the fearful cries that go up to

heaven in vain.
 

Our Greeting Cards and Reproduction Prints

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In the meantime, enjoy perusing this glorious illustration by Albrecht Dürer.

The illustration

	Single Greeting Card (with matching Envelope) Code: AD BA SGC Price: US$5.00   Reproduction on 8x12" sheet Code: AD BA (8x12) Price: US$30.00     Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: AD BA (12x18) Price: US$60.00

Some details from the illustration

God	A destructive Angel	Two destructive Angels