Picturing the Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation in the Arts over Two Millennia
- ISBN-10
- 0191002968
- ISBN-13
- 9780191002960
- Category
- Religion
- Pages
- 256
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-06-25
- Publisher
- OUP Oxford
- Authors
- Anthony O'Hear, Natasha O'Hear
Description
The book of Revelation has been a source of continual fascination for nearly two thousand years. Concepts such as The Lamb of God, the Four Horsemen, the Seventh Seal, the Beasts and Antichrist, the Whore of Babylon, Armageddon, the Millennium, the Last Judgement, the New Jerusalem, and the ubiquitous Angel of the Apocalypse have captured the popular imagination. One can hardly open a newspaper or click on a news web site without reading about impending financial or climate change Armageddon, while the concept of the Four Horsemen pervades popular music, gaming, and satire. Yet few people know much about either the basic meaning or original context of these concepts or the multiplicity of different ways in which they have been interpreted by visual artists in particular. The visual history of this most widely illustrated of all the biblical books deserves greater attention. This book fills these gaps in a striking and original way by means of ten concise thematic chapters which explain the origins of these concepts from the book of Revelation in an accessible way. These explanations are augmented and developed via a carefully selected sample of the ways in which the concepts have been treated by artists through the centuries. The 120 visual examples are drawn from a wide range of time periods and media including the ninth-century Trier Apocalypse, thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman Apocalypse Manuscripts such as the Lambeth and Trinity Apocalypses, the fourteenth-century Angers Apocalypse Tapestry, fifteenth-century Apocalypse altarpieces by Van Eyck and Memling, Dürer and Cranach's sixteenth-century Apocalypse woodcuts, and more recently a range of works by William Blake, J. M. W. Turner, Max Beckmann, as well as film posters and stills, cartoons, and children's book illustrations. The final chapter demonstrates the continuing resonance of all the themes in contemporary religious, political, and popular thinking, while throughout the book a contrast will be drawn between those readers of Revelation who have seen it in terms of earthly revolutions in the here and now, and those who have adopted a more spiritual, otherworldly approach.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2015-06-26
- 256 pages
- Ebook
- OUP Oxford
-
- 2015
- 333 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press, USA
Similar books
-
Revelations: Art of the Apocalypse
By Nancy GrubbFor nearly two thousand years, artists have been envisioning the end of the world as described in the biblical Book of Revelation. Their wonderfully strange creations - from Luca Signorelli's...
-
Reverend McKendree Robbins Long: Picture Painter of the Apocalypse
By David H. Steel, McKendree Robbins LongReverend McKendree Robbins Long: Picture Painter of the Apocalypse
-
Anna and the Apocalypse
By Katharine Turner, Barry WaldoThis novel is inspired by the musical feature film, Anna and the Apocalypse—sing and slay along at home with the VOD release! An Imprint Book
-
The Apocalypse
By Willis BarnstoneThe Apocalypse (1st-2nd century, C.E.), also known as Revelations, is a great epic poetic work
-
Apocalypse Illuminated: The Visual Exegesis of Revelation in Medieval Illustrated Manuscripts
By Richard Kenneth EmmersonStudies the illustration of Revelation in manuscripts from the ninth to the fifteenth century. Examines how twenty-five of the most important illustrated Apocalypses illustrate the biblical text and interpret it for diverse audiences.
-
Hunger
By Jackie Morse KesslerA teenage girl saddles up to take on worldwide famine—and her own anorexia—in a “fast-paced, witty, and heart-breaking” fantasy adventure (Richelle Mead, #1 New York Times-bestselling author) Jackie Morse Kessler’s Riders of the ...
-
Imagining Apocalypse: Studies in Cultural Crisis
By David SeedImagining Apocalypse: Studies in Cultural Crisis
-
Sign of the Apocalypse: Ruminations and Wit from an American Roadside Prophet
By John, GetchellOn occasion, The Sign of the Apocalypse (SOTA) traffics in the earnest, but at its heart is rooted in a deep-seated desire to express the sarcastic and snort-worthy.
-
Apocalypse with Pictures
By Albrecht Dürer- Apocalypse With Pictures presents Albrecht dürer's greatest achievement: 15 woodcuts illustrating the Book of Revelation In 1498, with Europe trembling before an Ottoman assault and mortally afraid of what the ominous year 1500 might ...
-
Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back
By Mark O'ConnellDublin-based writer Mark O’Connell is consumed by these questions—and, as the father of two young children, he finds them increasingly urgent. In Notes from an Apocalypse, he crosses the globe in pursuit of answers.