Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from The Apocalypse, 1498, from the Latin edition of 1511 Woodcut on laid paper 18-1/2 x 12-3/8 inches (47.0 x 31.4 cm) (sheet) 15-1/2 x 11 inches (block) Signed in monogram in the block lower center: AD PROVENANCE: Park West Gallery, Michigan; Private collection, acquired from the above, 2023. LITERATURE: Bartsch, 64; Hollstein, 167; Meder, 167. This lot is accompanied by a facsimile of a certificate of authenticity from Park West Gallery. This rich, evenly printed impression of Albrecht Dürer's celebrated woodcut of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is the finest example of this print Heritage Auctions has offered. Its impressively wide margins give a sense of the print's original context as one of the 15 woodcuts Dürer created to illustrate his Apocalypse or Book of Revelations of St. John the Divine, which he printed and published himself in Nuremberg. The project was historically remarkable, for it made Dürer the first artist in history both to publish a book he had illustrated and to create a copyright. His fifteen scenes, achieved by cutting into pear wood, were accompanied by the Biblical text printed on the reverse. The artist published the first edition of the book in 1498 in Latin and German, following his first trip to Italy (1494-95), at a time when much of secular Europe feared an invasion of the Ottoman Empire and Christian Europe anticipated a possible Last Judgment in the year 1500. The illustrated volume was a sensation and rapidly secured a tremendous reputation for Dürer across Europe. The present woodcut is from the book's second edition of 1511, printed only in Latin and utilizing two text columns rather than one on the reverse. Of all the woodcuts in the series, this fourth one of the Four Horsemen, referring to the sixth chapter of the New Testament, Revelation 6:1-8, is considered the most famous. The horsemen represent St. John's vision of the four distinctive apocalyptic riders as described in his gospel: "I looked and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow...Then another horse came out, a fiery red one...its rider was given a large sword...I looked and there before me was a black horse. Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand...I looked and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Death and Hades was following close behind him." The four horsemen appear in St. John's gospel as the first four seals are broken on the scroll presented by Christ to the seven-horned, seven-eyed lamb. The first rider with the bow and crown is the Conqueror; the second, with a sword, signifies War; the third represents Famine; and the fourth on the "sickly pale horse" denotes Death. The four horsemen serve as an allegory of the stages of human life. In the first and spiritual state, one is crowned. As one descends into the realm of experience they carry the sword. Reaching physical expression—which is the least spiritual state—one carries the scales, and by the "philosophic death" is released again into the higher spheres. An obvious challenge Dürer would have encountered when translating Revelation 6:1-8 into a black-and-white image was how to differentiate four horses which the text described as having particular colors. Dürer's solution was to reverse the order of the horsemen from the way they were summoned in the text, and to depict each rider's identifiable weapon very prominently. HID12401132022 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved
