Albrecht Durer’s

“The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”

Harvey Hanna
2010
“
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of
thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.” Revelation 6:1

Thus opens chapter six of the book of Revelations, also called the Apocalypse of Saint
John. In this book the Apostle John is taken out of our time and space into the realm of God.
Here he is shown all the things that will happen in the last days, when Satan, the god of this
world, is cast down into lake of fire and Christ returns to rule for 1000 years.
In 1498 Albrecht Durer published his Apocalypse with Pictures (Apocalypsis cum
Figuris), which illustrated the book of Revelation with a series of 15 intricate woodcuts.1 The
subjects of these woodcuts included the seven golden candlesticks, the seven headed dragon, the
Whore of Babylon and the Seven Angels with trumpets.2 The most famous of these is the "Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse".
In this woodcut Durer compresses the first eight verses of Revelation Chapter six into a
single scene. This use of time dilation, combined with the illusion of driving action, results in an
effective and powerful depiction of the quartet of Divine retribution that will be unleashed on the
earth in the last days.
“And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on
the backside, sealed with seven seals.”3 In this verse we learned a book that is locked with seven
seals, a book that no man in spavined on earth is worthy to open. As John begins to weep in
despair, he is told to “Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath
prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.”4 Then Jesus the Christ, the
“Lamb as it had been slain”5, takes up the book and breaks the first seal.
[1] And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard,
as it the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and
see.

1
Allen, L. Jesse. Albrecht Durer. London: Methuen & Co., 1903
2
Connecticut College's Wetmore Print Collection. 2009. 15 March 2010 <http://www.conncoll.edu/visual/Durer-
prints/index.html>.
3
Revelation 5:1 King James Version (KJV).
4
Ibid 5:5.
5
Ibid 5:6.

2
 [2] And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him
had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth
conquering, and to conquer.6
When John saw the rider on a white horse armed with a bow he would recognize this as
representing a Parthian horse archer. Parthia was the home province of the Aracid dynasty which
had come to rule what had been the Persian Empire beginning in the second century BC. After
the spread of the Roman Empire into the Middle East in the last half of the first century BC the
two aggressive states had come into conflict, resulting in an on and off state of war that would
last nearly 300 years.
Durer’s horseman, however, appears to be based on a contemporary Ottoman Turk
cavalryman; the bow he is wielding is very like the double re-curve composite bows used by the
Turkish Spahis. For 600 years these Turkish horsemen had been terrorizing the Middle East and
Southeast Europe, less than a half century before these woodcuts were created these steppe
nomads had conquered what had been the greatest city in Christendom, Constantinople. These
terrifying warriors, who seemed to have erupted from the very bowels of Hell, were a fitting
representation of this first horseman, who “went forth conquering, and to conquer.”
[3] And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second
beast say, Come and see.
[4] And there went out another horse that was red: and power was
given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that
they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great
sword.7
The rider on the blood red steed has come to bring war upon the earth, for this he has
been given a sword, in the Koine µάχαιρα, a word that had originally referred to a single edged
short sword with a downward curved blade. By the first century µάχαιρα was used to refer to the
Roman gladius.
In Durer’s woodcut, however, we see that the second horseman is armed with what
appears to be a double edged hand and a half sword, also known as a bastard sword. This rider is
also dressed in clothing similar to that worn by contemporary German mercenaries, the
Landsknecht. It can be seen that Durer is again modelling his representations on figures that
would be instantly recognized by viewers of his work.
[5] And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast
say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that
sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
[6] And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A
measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a
penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.8
With the third rider comes famine, the blackness of his horse could signify the scorching
of crops from the fires of war or from blight. In his hand he carries a balance scale, to weigh out
the portions of wheat and barley mentioned in verse six.
The penny mentioned is actually a Roman silver denarius, about the size and weight of a
U.S. silver dime. This was a typical day’s wages for a labourer.9 Wheat, of course, was used to

6
Ibid 6:1-2.
7
Revelation 6:3-4 (KJV).
8
Ibid 6:5-6.
9
Denarius. 2010. 19 March 2010 <http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=denarius>.

3
make bread, the basic food of the masses. When Christ is referred to as “the bread of life”, it is
in reference to breads ultimate importance as the key to the continuation of life itself.10 Barley
was considered the food of the poor and slaves, gladiators were known as “barley–eaters”
because they were fed a diet consisting of barley and vegetables in order to bulk them up for the
arena.11 As can be seen, wheat was triple the price of an equal amount of barley.12The luxury
items, the oil and wine, will still be freely available, for those who have the money.
Again we see Durer portraying his subject in a manner that would be familiar to his
viewers, this time the rich clothing and horse trappings identifies him as a renaissance merchant
prince. In his right hand he wields the balance scale as though it were a weapon, which it is.
The power over what can be bought and sold can be as deadly as any sword or bow, and just as
destructive.
[7] And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the
voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
[8] And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name
that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power
was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with
sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the
earth.13
This rider is the culminating figure of the four. He is the harvester of the crop sown by
lust for conquest, war and famine. The first three horsemen are figures of strength riding
powerful steeds, their faces are grimly set to finish the job they are assigned. Before them
mankind cringes impotently as they wait to be trampled under the rampaging riders. But the
fourth is emaciated and sickly astride a decrepit nag, and whereas the first three are sternly set on
completing their task, Death and his horse appear to share a savage glee in their work. The King
James Version describes his horse as pale, but the Greek word is Χλοροσ, green, the colour of
sickness and death.
We see people trying to flee before the onslaught, but one strange figure immediately
catches our eye. What appears to be either the pope or a bishop is not only being trampled by
death’s horse, it looks as though his head is about to be consumed by a monster.
Above all this flies an angel, could this be the one spoken of in Revelation 8?
[13] And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the
midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the
inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet
of the three angels, which are yet to sound!14
Although from a later chapter, this lamenting seraph and his tidings of doom to a
disobedient world is fitting. Durer encapsulated in this single image the wages of sin and
rebellion against the heavenly order.

10
“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth
on me shall never thirst.” John 6:35 (KJV).
11
Newman, C.W. and R.K. Newman. A Brief History of Barley Food. 2006. 28 March 2010
<http://www.aaccnet.org/cerealfoodsworld/samplepdfs/CFW-51-0004.pdf>.
12
Roman Economy - Prices in Ancient Rome. 2003 November 15. 20 March 2010
<http://www.ancientcoins.biz/pages/economy/>.
13
Revelation 6:7-8 (KJV).
14
Ibid 8:13

4
Works Cited
Allen, L. Jesse. Albrecht Durer. London: Methuen & Co., 1903.
Choinix [Greek, χοινιξ]. 27 November 2004. 20 March 2010
<http://www.sizes.com/units/choinix.htm>.
Connecticut College's Wetmore Print Collection. 2009. 15 March 2010
<http://www.conncoll.edu/visual/Durer-prints/index.html>.
Denarius. 2010. 19 March 2010
<http://www.forumancientcoins.com/ numiswiki/view.asp?key=denarius>.
Missouri-Western. The German Hyperinflation of 1923:A Seventy-Fifth Anniversary
Retrospective. 2003. 16 March 2010
<http://www.missouriwestern.edu/orgs/germanclub/inflation.html>.
Newman, C.W. Newman and R.K. A Brief History of Barley Food. 2006. 28 March 2010
<http://www.aaccnet.org/cerealfoodsworld/samplepdfs/CFW-51-0004.pdf>.
Roman Economy - Prices in Ancient Rome. 2003 November 15. 20 March 2010
<http://www.ancientcoins.biz/pages/economy/>.
The Holy Bible, King James Version. Thomas Nelson, n.d.