Engraving “Pipe Tone” is an illustration to the 8th chapter of the book “Revelation” of John the Theologian:
“And I saw seven angels standing before God, and seven pipes were given to them, and the seven angels, having the seven trumpets, prepared to blow.
The first angel sounded, and hail and fire, mixed with blood, were made and fell to the ground; and a third of the trees were burnt, and all the green grass was burnt.
The second angel sounded, and as if a large mountain, blazing with fire, was thrown into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood, and the third part of the animated creatures living in the sea died, and the third part of the ships perished.
And I saw and heard one Angel flying in the middle of the sky and speaking in a loud voice: woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth from the other trumpet voices of the three Angels who will blow! “
Albrecht Durer brilliantly depicted this terrible revelation of John the Theologian.
Here are the images created by Durer. He is building a giant world scene. Above, between God and the altar, the eighth angel. He throws a fire on the ground. Striking is his face. There is no anger or threats in it. This is the carefree face of a child who is amused. On the lips a smile of pleasure, in the eyes of curiosity. He is the embodiment of carefree cruelty. It is impossible to forget it.
The moon and the sun are shining. Disasters cover the earth. The storm is drowning ships. The wreckage of the masts is floating on the water, the rower raises his arms in horror, whose boat is swept by a wave. The other tries to escape by swimming. But where to go? In front of him is a flaming shore. Durer connected on one sheet several events, which the “Apocalypse” narrates. He managed to convey not an instantaneous, but a prolonged state of horror. A ravenous eagle crosses the sky obliquely. The wind whistles in the half-opened wings of the eagle, a cry from the beak: “Woe, woe, woe!” The artist wrote this word in letters. The short text included in the image is the only case in this cycle, it acquires a piercing force.
Huge hands protrude from behind a cloud, throwing a fiery mountain in the sea. It explodes with fire and steam, like a volcano, and the water around it boils. On the fiery mountain in the Apocalypse it is said, about the hands throwing it into the sea, there is not a word. There is no such image for any of the previous illustrators. This is the find of Durer. Angelic hands – small in the sky, approaching the earth, became ominously huge… And below, as far as the eye can see, the peaceful landscape unfolds. Soft hills, steep banks, rare transparent groves, enticing roads, winding rivers. Just this land was calm and beautiful. But the menacing pipes sounded, and everything that is on it perishes…
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