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Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528)

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Artist
Title
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Dating
1498
Material/Technique
Woodcut on paper
Dimensions
Mått 39,20 x 27,90 cm
Category
Inventory number
G 3/1920
Acquisition
Gift of Werner Lundqvist, 1920
Display Status
Not on display at the museum
Description
From the book “The Collection: The Gothenburg Museum of Art”, Gothenburg 2014: The angel proclaims that the time has come. Heaven is in turmoil and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Conquest, War, Famine, and Death - gallop across the face of the Earth. The people are trampled to the ground, and to the left a king disappears into the jaws of an enormous monster. The motif is taken from the Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, and depicts the apocalypse when Christ judges the quick and the dead. In Dürer’s day, the ravages of war were a very tangible reality, and one can understand that people would have recognized the horror of the picture. Dürer’s depiction is immensely detailed, full of movement and drama in a compressed space, contributing to the feeling that the riders are plunging forward, crushing all before them. Kristoffer Arvidsson
Signature/Inscription
Signature (Nere i mitten i stocken): AD Inscriptions (a tergo, tryckt): C. S. Doft apertionem quinqs figillosum... Etikett/Stämpel (a tergo nere till vänster): GM Inscriptions (a tergo nere till vänster): 1196 3/1920 Inscriptions (a tergo nere mitten): B 64 S.B. 7774 Inscriptions (a tergo nere till höger): lat. text l aurgabc Inscriptions (a tergo nere till höger): Dürer No 30 Inscriptions (a tergo nere till höger): S. 1196 Inscriptions (a tergo nere till höger): R. R. P. K
Exhibition History
Printed. Prints as collector's items, mass media and showpieces, Göteborg, Göteborgs konstmuseum, 14/03/2020 - 16/08/2020 Göteborg, Göteborgs konstmuseum, 12/11/2016 - 15/01/2017
Literature
Kristoffer Arvidsson, Per Dahlström, Björn Fredlund, Anna Hyltze, Philippa Nanfeldt, Isabella Nilsson, Johan Sjöström, Samlingen Göteborgs konstmuseum, red. Kristoffer Arvidsson, Per Dahlström, Anna Hyltze, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg 2014., p. 72, ill. p. 73 Rudolf Zeitler, Albrecht Dürer, red., Wahlström & Widstrand, Stockholm, 1946., p. 63-73, ill. p. 68
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