Art of the Apocalypse

Not this Apocalypse...

...but, of the end of the world kind.

Albrecht Durer - Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Jacob de Backer--The Last Judgment (1580)

Lucas Cranach the Elder--The Seven-Headed Dragon and the Heavenly Woman (1472-1553)

Fall of Babylon--5th in Angers Apocalypse Tapestry series

William Blake--The Whore of Babylon (1809)

Features of apocalyptic art

• "gruesome destruction of a/the World in the near future" or an already-existing "infernal/decayed state" of the world due to sin/corruption
• "physical or moral salvation of only a handful chosen"
• "ethic aspect the universal war of Good and Evil, generally with the coming (or returning) of a Liberator (Messiah), leading to the final triumph (or at least a glimpse of the possibility of glory)"

​(from Laszlo Hubbes' "Apocalyptic Motifs..."

...and this feature

• "the definitive consummation or the eternal perdition of sinners (the unbelievers, the Others), respectively, the hope of the world's purification of sins and evil, and its recreation and resumption in its (original and ideal) goodness"

Hubbes' definition

• "revelatory-visionary"
• dramatic and symbolic
• "expression of an eschatological myth"...exhibiting "an inverted and extreme dualism"
• "drama reenacting the ancient combat myth"

Hubbes' definition contd.

This drama's structure:

• "crisis (tribulations) - catastrophe (last judgment) - apocatastasis (new heaven, new earth), unfolding on a dual level"

Pieter Bruegel the Elder--The Triumph of Death (1562)

Hieronymus Bosch--The Last Judgment (1482-1516)

This and the following were featured in Flavorwire's article on apocalyptic art

John Hendrix--Doomsday from Disasters (contemporary)

Bruce Conner--Bombhead (1989-2002)

John Martin--The Great Day of His Wrath (1851-3)

Konstantin Batynkov

Fun with Apocalypses!

Right? (right???)