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Revelations
Art of the Apocalypse
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ANGELS OF THE
APOCALYPSE
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The
Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto
his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and
signified it by his angel unto his servant John: who bare record . .
. of all things that he saw.
Revelation 1:1-2
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William
Blake (1757-1827)
The Angel of
Revelation
1805
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THE BOOK OF REVELATION
BEGINS WITH AN ANGEL, AND ANGELS PLAY
vital roles in much of the action. Awe-inspiring and destructive—and
bearing little resemblance to the sweetly sentimental cherubs and
guardian angels so *■' popular today—the formidable angels of
Revelation have supernatural powers and attributes: "And I saw another mighty angel come down from
heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and
his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire"
(10:1). For an artist's attempt to depict this godlike creature, see
the background of Hans Memling's altarpiece (see below), in which every
element of this description is faithfully rendered.
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 Hans Memling
(1435-1494)
St John Altarpiece
Memling
Museum, Saint Jeans Hospital, Bruges |

Hans Memling
(1435-1494)
The Archangel Michael
c.1479
Wallace Collection, London
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Some angels in
Revelation use their powers to control nature: "I saw four
angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding
the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow
on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree" (7:1). (In
the illustration on page 21, the winds are depicted as
bodiless heads whose mouths are muffled by the four angels.)
Others devote themselves to the adoration of God: "And all
the angels stood round about the throne . . . and fell
before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God"
(7:11). But most often they are instruments of destruction.
The seven trumpet angels who appear after the opening of the
seventh seal herald the second sequence of disasters: hail
and fire rain down upon the earth, waters are turned to
blood and poisonous wormwood, a burning mountain and a great
star fall from the skies (a scene possibly inspired by the
eruption of Mount Vesuvius in a.d.
79), huge locusts torment those without the protecting seal of God,
a death-dealing cavalry of 200 million kills one-third of mankind
with fire, smoke, and brimstone.
This sequence of disasters has provided potent inspiration for
artists. In the image of the second trumpet in the
Saint-Sever Beams (see below),
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The Second Angel Blows
His Trumpet,
from Beatus of Liebana,
Commentary on the Apocalypse ( Saint-Sever Beams)
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the wavy red band at
center represents the one-third of the sea turned to blood; in the
tapestry version (see below), which
focuses on the shipwreck, the sea seems to bleed from a wound below
the shattered boat. Note how carefully the images illustrate each
detail of the text, as though by finding an exact visual equivalent
the artist could reveal the meaning of the words.
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The Second Trumpet:
The Shipwreck,
from The Apocalypse of Angers,
designed by LeanBondol and woven by Nicolas de Bataille,
c.1373-81.
Tapestry.
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The seven trumpet angels are later followed by the seven plague
angels, each of whom is given a golden vial filled with a specific
disaster. (These vials—the original Greek word actually refers to a
flat bowl—were portrayed by artists in shapes as narrow as test
tubes or as flat as soup plates.) The emptying of the first vial
inflicts painful sores on everyone who carries the mark of the
beast. The contents of the second and third vials turn the seas,
rivers, and fountains to blood. The miseries are multiplied with
each vial until the seventh and final one is poured into the air, at
which point a great voice says, "It is done." Although the seven trumpet and the seven plague angels are the
angels most frequently seen in Revelation images, others have been
memorably depicted. The angel standing in the sun, who appears late
in the text—after Babylon has fallen and Christ has arrived on his
white horse—was painted by Joseph Mallord William Turner in a
luminous image (see below)
that captures the rush of whirling light and space at the end of
time.
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Joseph Mallord William Turner
(1775-1851)
The Angel Standing in the Sun
1846
Tate Gallery, London
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Peter
Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
The Fall of the Damned
1620
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
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Arnie Swekel Fallen Angel
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Matthew D. Wilson
Fallen Angel
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Todd Lockwood
Crypt Angel
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