Getty Museum

The Angel Pouring Out from the Seventh Vessel

Date

about 1255–1260

Medium

Tempera colors, gold leaf, colored washes, pen and ink

Culture

English

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

In the Apocalypse, Saint John the Evangelist described the events that will take place when the seventh and final vessel of the "Wrath of God" is poured out upon the earth. The contents cause "lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and ... a great earthquake." On the left, Saint John turns back just in time to see the destruction brought about by the vessel's release. The artist has depicted not only the visual imagery described in the text; by showing the thunder as roaring animal heads, he has captured Saint John's experience of the sounds as well. At the bottom of the image, beneath the leveled city, the heads of those crushed by the fallen buildings lie buried amid the rubble. Above, the "great voice out of the temple from the throne" is represented as a half-length figure of Christ within a mandorla emerging from a building surrounded by clouds. The heavenly temple appears to be suspended from a small peg in the upper margin of the page, a clever device of the artist entirely unaccounted for in the text.

The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.