Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Durer Playing Cards

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Durer, 1497-1498, is a woodcut print depicting the White, Black, Red and Pale horses with riders from the Bible’s Book of Revelations by Saint John. Durer’s fierce, macabre horsemen, instruments of Divine judgment, rush furiously forth across earth, sky and clouds, trampling kings and common folk alike underfoot as a winged angel flies overhead. This early woodcut was among the widely disseminated prints which secured Durer’s reputation as one of the greatest artists of his day. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was a German painter of the Northern Renaissance whose work as an engraver, printmaker, mathematician and theorist secured his reputation as one of the greatest artists of Europe. His many paintings, portraits, altarpieces, watercolors, and engravings were the first in the Northern Renaissance to use classical motifs from antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. Durer’s unparalleled skill in drawing and engraving as well as mastery of perspective allowed him rapid execution of a range of motifs which elicit universal admiration to this day.