The Four Horsemen
The Horse as the central motif, with the Angel and the Wing in a secondary part. From The Met, open access.
What is happening
Apocalypse 6:1 “And I saw that the Lamb had opened one of the seven seals: and I heard one of the four living creatures, as it were the voice of thunder, saying: Come and see.”
Apocalypse 6:8 “And power was given to him over the four parts of the earth, to kill with sword, with famine and with death and with the beasts of the earth.”
Key · 2 motifs
Tap a motif on the picture, or a line below. Its note opens under the line, with the reading its author gave it.
- Primary motif
- Secondary motifs · 1
The picture
Death, Famine, War and Conquest ride down the people; an angel above; from the Apocalypse of 1498, by eye. By eye
Decoded: every motif is marked, and each mark carries the reading its author gave it, quoted from the text, or says that it is observed on the picture and not read. The composition, the picture read whole in our own words, comes with the entry.
No entry yet for this motif. The wall gathers every work that carries it.
By eye The central motif, the four horses, ridden down the page from the right.
Apocalypse 6:2 “And I saw: and behold a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and there was a crown given him, and he went forth conquering that he might conquer.”
Apocalypse 6:4 “And there went out another horse that was red. And to him that sat thereon, it was given that he should take peace from the earth: and that they should kill one another. And a great sword was given to him.”
Apocalypse 6:5 “And behold a black horse. And he that sat on him had a pair of scales in his hand.”
Apocalypse 6:8 “And behold a pale horse: and he that sat upon him, his name was Death. And hell followed him.”
No entry yet for this motif. The wall gathers every work that carries it.
By eye A secondary motif, the angel above the riders, at the top right.
Symbolica The sixth chapter has no angel over the horsemen; Dürer put one there. Observed on the print, and left unread rather than guessed.
Also carrying the Horse
6 works. The symbol.
Also carrying the Angel and the Wing
16 works. The symbol.
By the same hand
In the same series
Record
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