An angel flies with a golden trumpet.
Bible in art · Revelation
Leaf from a Beatus Manuscript: the First Angel Sounds the Trumpet; Fire, Hail-stones, and Blood are Cast Upon the Earth
Unknown Spanish painter · ca. 1180
The Met, New York
A leaf from a Beatus manuscript, made in Spain about 1180. Beatus of Liébana wrote a commentary on Revelation in the 8th century, and Spanish copies were filled with pictures in bold bands of colour.
At the top an angel flies with a long trumpet. Below, red and white hail falls on a band of trees, and lower still trees stand among red, blue and ochre hills.
From the text
- The seven angels prepare to sound their trumpets (Revelation 8:6)
- Hail and fire mixed with blood fall on the earth (Revelation 8:7)
The artist’s own
- The picture in flat coloured bands, a Spanish custom
- The trees drawn as stylised plants
Details
The angel
Hail and fire
Red and white dots fall from the sky.
The trees
Rows of trees on a coloured band.
The hills
Red, blue and ochre shapes at the bottom.
Unknown illuminator, Spanish. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Purchase, The Cloisters Collection, Rogers and Harris Brisbane Dick Funds, and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1991; 1991.232.8) · Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment · Public Domain — The Met Open Access (CC0). The Met Collection API record: "isPublicDomain": true; The Met marks such works on its website "with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) icon".