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The Morgan Library
& Museum
225 Madison Avenue
at 36th Street
New York
212-685-0008
Apocalypse Then: Medieval Illuminations from the Morgan
March 23-June 17, 2007

The Apocalypse, or the Book of Revelation, is not only the last book of the New Testament, but its most difficult, puzzling, and terrifying. It provided challenges to its medieval illustrators and was the source for a number of popular images, such as Christ in Majesty, the Adoration of the Lamb, and the Madonna of the Apocalypse. It also contributed to the widespread use of the Evangelists’ symbols: Matthew as the angel, Mark as the lion, Luke as the ox, and John as the eagle.

In a new exhibition entitled Apocalypse Then: Medieval Illuminations from the Morgan, the Book of Revelation, in all of its complexity, is seen through the eyes of some of the greatest medieval illuminators. Drawn entirely from the Morgan’s renowned collections, the show celebrates the completion of a facsimile of the Morgan’s “Las Huelgas” Apocalypse and also includes examples from Spanish, French, Flemish, and Russian traditions. The exhibition will be on view from March 23 through June 17, 2007.

The “Las Huelgas” Apocalypse, by the monk Beatus of Liébana, is the largest and latest (1220) of a five-hundred-year series of medieval illuminated commentaries on the Apocalypse. The series is considered Spain’s most important contribution to medieval manuscript illumination. Visitors to the exhibition will have the rare opportunity to view fifty of the “Las Huelgas” miniatures because the manuscript was disbound for the preparation of the facsimile; the leaves will be displayed in the original order.

The exhibition also includes one of the earliest surviving illuminated manuscripts of the Spanish tradition. It was both written and illuminated by Maius about 945 in the famous tower scriptorium of the monastery of San Salvador de Tabara. It is the most important Spanish illuminated manuscript in the United States.

The Anglo-Norman Apocalypse cycle originated during the second quarter of thirteenth century and is represented by a manuscript that was made in London ca. 1250. Owned by the Morgan, it is considered by scholars to be among the earliest examples of this tradition.

Also on view is an independent French cycle created for the great bibliophile, Jean Duc de Berry ca. 1415. It was illustrated by an anonymous artist who is named the Master of the Berry Apocalypse, after this manuscript. Two Flemish examples from the second half of the fifteenth century are included in the exhibition. One was made for either Philip the Good or Charles the Bold, dukes of Burgundy, who used the same coat of arms. It is painted in a crystalline and realistic style, whereas the other Flemish example made about 1475 for Margaret of York, wife of Charles the Bold, is notable for its more atmospheric and visionary style.

A large group of Apocalypse manuscripts was produced in Russia from the sixteenth to the very early twentieth centuries, some having cycles of seventy-two miniatures. Two profusely illustrated examples, in Old Slavonic, will be on display. One dates from the eighteenth century; the other was one of the last produced. Apocalypse Then: Medieval Illuminations from the Morgan is sponsored by Melvin R. Seiden.

Apocalypse Then was organized by William M. Voelkle, Curator and Department Head of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts.

The Las Huelgas Apocalypse
The Las Huelgas Apocalypse is the largest and latest dated of a series of illuminated “Beatus” manuscripts, so named because they contain commentaries on the Apocalypse written by the Asturian monk Beatus of Liébana in 775–76. Some twenty-seven survive, constituting Spain’s greatest achievement in medieval manuscript illumination. Beatus Apocalypses, as here, usually have three components: a prefatory cycle with Christological themes, the Apocalypse commentary, and Jerome’s commentary on the Book of Daniel, regarded as an Old Testament Apocalypse. The Las Huelgas Apocalypse was disbound for a facsimile (exhibited in the center of the room); miniatures from its three sections have been displayed around the perimeter of the room. (Additional cases in the center contain other Apocalypses.)

The Las Huelgas manuscript, according to its colophon, was completed in September 1220. The scribes also ask the readers to thank the benefactress who sponsored the book, beseeching God to save the pious lady from her tribulations and to let her hear, on Judgment Day, “Come my beloved daughter, sit at the right hand of God the Father with the saints and the elders.” The scribes also entreat readers to treat the volume gently and softly, lest the leaves and writing incur damage.

Siege of Jerusalem. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. (Dan. 1:1).This miniature actually illustrates an earlier siege in which Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and, on the plain of Jericho, the escaping King Sedecias of Judah. At the bottom left sits the enthroned Nebuchadnezzar, flanked by guards in thirteenth-century armor; he directs the blinding of Sedecias and the killing of his sons (4 Kings 25:1-7). On the opposite page, Jeremiah, seated outside the city, laments the fall of Jerusalem and defeat of the Israelites.MS M.429 (fols. 149v–150).

Omega And The Tower Scriptorium Of Tábara. In the Apocalypse Christ refers to himself several times as the Alpha and Omega. Thus some Beatus manuscripts begin and end with monumental images of those two Greek letters. When the Morgan manuscript was rebound during the seventeenth century, the final bifolio containing the omega and the tower was turned inside out by the binder, who thought he was correcting a previous mistake. Thus the omega incorrectly ended up as the last illustration. Now, for the first time since then, the original order of these last two images has been restored. The representation of the celebrated scriptorium of San Salvador de Tábara was copied from a Beatus manuscript completed in Tábara in 970. The two images are the earliest "portraits" of a medieval scriptorium in a manuscript. It shows the scribe and illuminator laying out their folios, while a novice trims parchment. In the tower, three men ring the bells, which functioned as the community's clock. MS M.429 (fol. 184v, 183)

Seven Deadly Sins as the Seven Plagues.The seven plagues, following the commentary by Berengaudus (fl. 840-92), are interpreted as the Seven Deadly Sins, which some believed would take over the world as the end neared. Envy places a crown on Pride, Anger holds a sword, Avarice has a purse, and Gluttony drinks. Sloth is recumbent and Lust combs his hair. The manuscript was in the library of Jean, duc de Berry, the great French bibliophile who commissioned the Très Riches Heures. The anonymous artist responsible for its 85 miniatures was named the Master of the Berry Apocalypse after this book.

Christ In Majesty With The Four Living Creatures,The popular theme of Christ in Majesty surrounded by the four symbols of the evangelists (eagle, man, lion, ox) is based on John's vision of the throne of heaven with the four living creatures (Rev. 4). His vision, in turn, was inspired by that of Ezechiel, where cherubim supported the throne chariot of God. Jeweled binding with gold repoussé plaque. Flanders, third quarter of the 11th century, for Judith, countess of Flanders. On a Gospel Book, in Latin. England, ca. 1051-64, for Judith of Flanders.

The “pious lady” who commissioned the volume, alas, was not named; she has been plausibly identified as Queen Berenguela, oldest daughter of Castilian king Alfonso VIII and Queen Leonor, founder of the Las Huelgas Cistercian convent in 1187. The royal convent was built on the site of their country residence outside Burgos, hence Las Huelgas (repose). Berenguela’s mother was the daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and her sister was Blanche of Castile (who commissioned, for her son, Louis IX of France, the Moralized Bible in the center of the room). After her death in 1246, Berenguela was buried at the royal convent, where the manuscript remained until the late 1860s.

The Las Huelgas Apocalypse was probably illuminated in Toledo, its nearly 100 miniatures the work of three artists. The model they used was a Beatus dated 970, surviveing in in Madrid in a fragmentary state. The Madrid Beatus was finished by Emeterius but was begun by Maius (d. 968), who painted the Morgan’s earliest Beatus (also on exhibit).

Apocalypse
The Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, is the last book of the New Testament and the most difficult, puzzling, and terrifying. According to the text, it was written on the island of Patmos by a Christian prophet named John, who, from the second century on, was identified with the “beloved” apostle of Christ and the author of the fourth Gospel. Dionysius (d. ca. 264), bishop of Alexandria, and others, however, rejected the identification based on style and content, a conclusion shared by most biblical scholars. The Eastern Church, for over a millennium, regarded Apocalypse as heretical, excluding it from the Bible. Martin Luther considered it neither apostolic nor prophetic and could in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it. The apostles, he said, deal in clear and plain words, and thus there are far better books. Given the Apocalypse’s hostile attitude to Rome, dates from the reign of Emperor Nero (54-68) or, more often, Domitian (81-96) have been proposed; both persecuted Christians. An earlier date for chapters 4-12 has been suggested by J. Massyngberde Ford, attributing them to John the Baptist and proposed that the first three chapters were added after A.D. 60 to “Christianize” the text. The interpretation of the book is also problematic, and over the last two millennia each age seemed to offer its own. Whereas medieval apocalypticism was mostly religious, that of our own day added a secular, often negative note, including such things as the AIDS epidemic, the Y2K “bug,” global warming, and terrorist attacks. The Greek word apocalypse, meaning “revelation,” has become synonymous with catastrophe. Despite the fact that the text suggests that what would happen was imminent (Jesus himself said the Second Coming was soon), and that every prediction up to 2000 is unfulfilled, this has not deterred some from making new ones. Beatus wrote his commentary to prepare fellow monks for the end he believed would arrive in 800, but he may have survived his prophecy. Eschatological predictions, overshadow the book’s positive meaning, that forces of evil will be overcome and the righteous and faithful will be victorious, receiving reward in heavenly Jerusalem. Most of the miniatures in the Las Huelgas Apocalypse are by an artist, perhaps an assistant, whose origins are less clear. The Master of Toledo, who painted the Daniel scenes, executed the seven miniatures beginning on folio 100 as well as the final Apocalypse miniature (fol. 146v). Beatus divided the text into 68 short sections, each with lengthy commentary (a storia and explanatio); miniatures follow usually illustrating the storia.

Book of Daniel
Although it was once thought that the author was Daniel, a Jewish exile in Babylon in the sixth century B.C., most scholars agree the book was written between 168 and 165 B.C. in support of Jews persecuted by the Seleucid emperor, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The book was used as a pattern for later Jewish and Christian apocalypses, including the present Apocalypse of John, which also told of the fall of Babylon and the coming of Christ. The Daniel cycle was added to Beatus manuscripts about 945, the same time that Maius introduced the prefatory cycle. The artist responsible for the eleven miniatures of the Las Huelgas Daniel cycle is called the Master of Toledo, after the city where he painted both manuscripts and frescoes. He participated in a copy of St. Ildefonsus’s Treatise on the Virginity of Mary, now in Madrid (cod. 10087), and in wall paintings at the Basilica of Santa Cruz in Toledo. The Daniel cycle, however, was not invented for this manuscript but derives from earlier illustrated Bibles.