Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Albrecht Durer

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Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Albrecht Durer

By Inbar Gal and Sam Lee
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Meet the Painter

• Born May 21, 1471 in Nuernberg (one of eighteen
  children)
• Married Agnes Frey in 1494 in Nuernberg
• Died April 6 1528 in Nuernberg
• He started by working with his father, a
  goldsmith. He was later apprenticed to a
  painter/printmaker named Michael Wolgumut. He
  often journeyed to places such as Italy, which
  influenced his works.
• His theories were published in The Four Books on
  Human Proportions, published after his death.
• Unlike most Medieval or Renaissance artists, he
  made a series of Self Portraits

Guten Tag
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Durer Self-Portraits
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Durer Self-Portraits Cont.
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Apocalypse of St. John
Front Piece
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Christ and the 7 Candlesticks
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Adoration of the Lamb
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John Eating the Scroll
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• Four Horsemen of the
• Apocalypse
• (Our Painting)

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• Dragon with
• Seven Heads

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• Martyrdom of
• John

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Four Winds
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Fifth and Sixth Trumpets
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Beast with Seven Heads and the Beast with Two
Horns
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St. Michael and the Angels Fight the Dragon
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24 Elders
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Sixth Seal is Opened
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Woman Seated on the Beast
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Angel with Key to the Pit
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Seven Angels with Seven Trumpets
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About the Picture

• Conquest
• A white rider upon a white horse, holding a bow
  with a crown upon his head.
• Symbolizes lust for conquest
• Different Theories of who the horseman is
• War
• Riding on a red horse, holding a sword.
• Red would symbolize bloodshed
• Given permission to make men slay each
• other

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• Famine
• Riding a black horse, holding scales
  (symbolically injustice, because famine only
  affects the poor).
• Black could be burned up vegetation
• Death
• The rider upon a sickly green horse. Hades
  (Hell) follows behind him.
• Hades is swallowing a bishop-corruption of church
  officials (5th seal)
• Renaissance society felt that life was not only
  for the preparation for salvation, but that
  immediate realities were also valuable
• Durer makes Death unusually thin (normally a
  condition we would imagine Famine to be), and
  holding a trident. Hades is in the form of a
  demon

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About the Picture

• Angel
• The angel seems to have been added in solely by
  Durer. It is most likely the angel that heralds
  the apocalypse.
• People
• The running people are the Non believers or fake
  Christians living on earth at the time of the
  Apocalypse. Durer dressed them in the fashions of
  that time period.

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Renaissance

• The people (including the Horsemen) in the
  woodcut are more human, with very individual
  faces. Also, they are normal people not
  beautiful archetypes or hideously ugly demons but
  regular human faces
• The attention to detail is also very typical of
  the Renaissance. The folds in the horses and the
  careful details on the horses, for example. Also,
  the use of wind blowing through the clothing and
  the sense of action.
• The use of shadows and light are also very
  commonly found in pictures of in the Renaissance,
  as is the use of negative space and shading. The
  figures appear very three-dimensional.
• The use of perspective is also unique to the
  Renaissance

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Contributions

• Contributions of the WOODCUT
• Illustrates tensions in that time period (some
  say it supports the Protestant reformation by
  depicting the Roman/Catholic church as Babylon)
• Shows the transition from Middle Age painting and
  Renaissance
• Fused the Gothic traditions of the North
  (Angularity of shapes) with the Italian
  Renaissance styles (perspective, realism and
  three-dimensionality)
• Mass-produced his woodcuts to make art more
  available to the middle class

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Contributions

• Contributions of the Artist
• -Mathematician. Obsessed with mathematical
  precision in paintings
• -Famous for his phenomenal versatility with the
  graver and woodcut knife

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Works Cited
"Albrecht Durer." Mathematicians. Online
Available
lthttp//www- gap.dcs.stand.ac.uk/history/Mathema
ticians /Durer.htmLgt, 6 Mar. 2004 "Albrecht
Dürer." Malaspina Great Books. Online Available
lthttp//www.malaspina.com/site/person_430.aspgt,
6 Mar. 2004 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Online Available http//www.apocalipsis.org/art
work/durer4horse.html , 6 Mar. 2004 Gable, C. I.
Albrecht Durer. Online Available
lthttp//www.boglewood.com/cornaro/xdurer.htmlgt,
6 Mar. 2004