Minneapolis Institute of Art
Beast with Two Horns Like a Lamb
Albrecht DürerLinkedCulture matchlcp-840f7214ff34
- Date
- 1498
- Medium
- Woodcut
- Department
- European Art
- Institution
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Object ID
- 49918
From LinkedCulture
In 1498, a twenty-six-year-old Albrecht Dürer published a book that changed printmaking forever. This woodcut shows a seven-headed, crowned beast coiling through the scene while kneeling crowds worship below and fire rains from heaven at the command of a second, lamb-horned creature. Dürer carved every serpentine scale and billowing cloud with such precision that he lifted the woodcut from cheap popular print to serious high art. This single sheet helped set the standard for European printmaking for generations to come.
Written by LinkedCulture for its video on this object. Machine-generated (claude-sonnet-4-6), not yet reviewed by a person. It is not part of the museum’s record.
From the Minneapolis Institute of Art record
Albecht Dürer’s Apocalypse had the most spellbinding illustrations of any book published in the 1400s. One of sixteen images, this illustrated the thirteenth chapter of The Book of Revelation: … I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns…. Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It… made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast…. And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people…. The seed for this remarkable image was a small woodcut in a Bible published by his godfather, Anton Koberger, when Dürer was twelve years old. Germany, Europe
The authoritative record is held by Minneapolis Institute of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Bequest of Herschel V. Jones
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Minneapolis Institute of Art and other institutions.