Cloisters Apocalypse

The Cloisters Apocalypse, MS 68.174 (also the Cloisters Book of Revelations) is a small French illuminated manuscript dated c. 1330. It is based on John the Evangelist's New Testament visions and apocalyptic revelation. According to Christian legend John was exiled c. 95AD to the Aegean island of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. The book evokes John's despair and isolation while exiled,[1] and his prophecy of events and terrors of the last days.

Saint Joseph sleeps through the Nativity, Cloisters Apocalypse, c. 1330
Folio, The Cloisters, c 1300, New York. Each leaf 30.8 × 23cm

The manuscript was probably influenced by the c 776 writings of the Spanish monk Beatus of Liébana, who contextualised the writings of Saint John into an early medieval context.[2] Today it is in the collection of The Cloisters, in New York.

Style and attribution
Annunciation and Visitation, folio 1r

In form and style, the manuscript resembles two other books created in Normandy c1320-1330; "Apocalypse (Revelation)" (MS 17333) in the British Library ,[3] and the "Apocalypse of Saint-Victor" (MS lat. 14410) in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. [4] All three were produced on the continent, but based on late 13th century English sources, probably another manuscript, possibly "The Lambeth Apocalypse" (MS 209) at the Lambeth Palace Library in London, which contains a number of details closely resembling those in the "Cloisters Apocalypse", which is thought to be the common source for all three.[5]

The Cloisters book differs from the others in the group in one important aspect; it begins with a preliminary cycle from the childhood of Jesus.[5]

Text

The book opens with God and the Seven Angels instructing and prophesying the bishops of Seven churches of Asia to conquer and spread the word of the Holy Spirit. These episodes are followed by incidents from John's life and travels, especially his exile on the island of Patmos.[6] The book ends with scenes from the early life of Christ. Throughout there are multiple heraldic shields, although many are badly damaged or faded.[7]

Miniatures
"John on the Island of Patmos", foilo 3r

The book contains 72 half or full page miniature illustrations,[8] most of which are courtly in the early 14th century style, although the borders of the leaves are richly detailed. Folio 9 verso contains six armorial shields on the border of an altar cloth.[9] In keeping with a Book of Revelations, contain scenes of pessimism and violence, while miniatures show a bleeding Christ by a tree. The marginalia contains grotesque beasts and daemons.[10] These depictions include fragments of altar tables and doves, with the Souls of the Dead, martyrs, and crucifixion trees.[2]

Overall the book takes a soft approach to John's revelations, with the illuminations mainly in the soft style, and courtly, typically Gothic, scenes of domesticity interspersing with darker figures, but all painted in a manner influenced with Spanish art of the period.[2]

The later miniatures mostly emphasise John's proximity and bond with Jesus.[10]

Four Horsemen

A number of miniatures detail the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, individually and in groups. The knightly saints are identified through the colour mainly associated with them; St. George rides a white horse (associated with a royal steed), St. Theodore, holding the scales of famine, sits on a "gloomy" black horse, and St. Demetrius a red horse, (associated with the color of blood). The fourth horseman Death, rides a pale horse, traditionally "the color of decay", according to art historian Helmut Nickel.[11]

  • Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
  • Third Horseman, St. Theodore
  • Fourth Horseman, Death

Provenance

A coat of arms illustrated on one of the leaves suggests it was commissioned by a member of the de Montigny family of Coutances, Normandy.[9] Stylistically it resembles other Norman illuminated books, as well as some designs on stained glass, of the period.[12] The book was in Switzerland by 1368, possibly at the abbey of Zofingen, in the canton of Aargau.[9] It was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1968.[8]

  • The Seven Churches and the Seven Angels, folio 5r
  • John Led to the New Jerusalem, folio 36v
  • Saint John and Virgin with Donors, folio 38v

Notes
  1. "The Cloisters Apocalypse". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Volume 30, no. 2, October–November, 1971. 45
  2. Barnet, 39
  3. "MS 17333". The British Library. Retrieved 5 March 2017
  4. "http://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc75164x]" Retrieved 21 April 2017
  5. Deuchle, 10
  6. "The Cloisters Apocalypse". Metropolitan Museum of Art, Retrieved 3 March 2017
  7. Deuchler (1974), 18
  8. Deuchler (1974), 10
  9. Lawson, 59
  10. Deuchler (1974), 13
  11. Nickel (1977), 179
  12. Deuchler (1974), 14-15

Sources
  • Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. CT: Yale University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-1-5883-9176-6
  • Deuchler, Florens. The Cloisters Apocalypse, Volume 1. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974. ISBN 978-0-8709-9110-3
  • Lawson, Margaret. "Picturing the Apocalypse: Illustrated Leaves from a Medieval Spanish Manuscript". University of Chicago Press and The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Volume 59, no. 3, 2002
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Cloisters Apocalypse." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Volume 30, no. 2, 1971
  • Nickel, Helmut. "And Behold, a White Horse... Observations on the Colors of the Horses of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse". Metropolitan Museum Journal, Volume 12, 1977
  • Nickel, Helmut. "A Theory about the Early History of the Cloisters Apocalypse". Metropolitan Museum Journal, Volume 6, 1972
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