The Apocalypse Tapestries

[Stone]

The Apocalypse Tapestries
(Part 1)

NLM | November 18, 2023


As the Church’s year draws to a close, the book of the Apocalypse becomes very prominent in the Roman liturgy. It is read at the Mass of both the vigil (5, 6-12) and feast of All Saints (7, 2-12), and at Matins of the latter (4, 2-8 and 5, 1-14); at the third Mass of All Souls’ day (a reading of single verse, 14, 3, borrowed from the daily Mass for the Dead); and at Matins of the two dedication feasts on the universal calendar, those of the Lateran basilica on November 9th (21, 9-18), and of Ss Peter and Paul today (21, 18-27). It also provides the epistle for the Mass of a dedication generally (21, 2-5), and the Introit and Magnificat antiphon of Second Vespers of Christ the King. In the Mass lectionary of the post-Conciliar rite, it is read on the ferial days of the last two weeks of even-numbered years.

Introitus Dignus est Agnus, qui occísus est, accípere virtútem, et divinitátem, et sapientiam, et fortitúdinem, et honórem. Ipsi gloria et imperium in saecula saeculórum. Ps. 71 Deus, judicium tuum Regi da, et justitiam tuam Filio Regis. Gloria Patri... Dignus est Agnus...

Introit, Apoc. 5,12 & 1, 6 Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honor. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Ps 71 O God, give Thy judgment to the King, and Thy justice to the King’s son. Glory be... Worthy is the Lamb...

One of the most magnificent artistic representations of the Apocalypse is a set of six enormous tapestries (20 feet high by almost 79 long) woven in Paris between 1377 and 1382. Each of them begins on the left with a man sitting under a Gothic baldachin, reading the Apocalypse from a book on a stand in front of him. There follow 14 scenes of St John’s visions arranged in the order of the book, running from left to right, first above and then below, making for 15 panels per tapestry, a total of 90 scenes between the six.

Part of the tapestries in their modern display space within the Château d’Angers. Image from Wikimedia Commons by c6L, CC BY-SA 2.0.

These tapestries were commissioned by Louis I (1339-84), the second son of King Jean II of France, and first Duke of Anjou. His grandson and third successor to his title, René, donated them to the cathedral of Angers, the capital of the duchy, where they remained until the French Revolution. France’s artistic treasures perished by the millions in that hideous debauch of barbarism, and the tapestries were cut into pieces and used for various purposes, such as covering crops for winter storage in barns. The surviving were recovered in 1848, but fourteen of the scenes from the book and two of the readers were lost; the sixth tapestry is the most badly damaged (five scenes and the reader lost, and the last scene in fragments), but the third and fourth are intact. In 2020, a group of 30 more fragments were discovered in a Parisian art gallery, and have been donated to the museum of the castle in Angers where the tapestries are now housed.

The images are taken from this page of Wikimedia Commons, which shows the arrangement of the panels divided by tapestry (by PMR Maeyaert, CC BY-SA 4.0, except where noted otherwise.) I will present them in three posts, two tapestries per.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Tapestry

The First Reader

The first panel, which represented the opening of the Apocalypse, with St John on the island of Patmos, is lost. The second represents the first mention of the seven churches to which he is ordered to write, chapter 1, verse 11.




The vision of the Son of Man in the midst of the seven candlesticks (1, 12-20)




Chapters 2 and 3, the letters which John writes to the seven churches, are passed over; the next panel is his vision of the throne of God in chapter 4.




The twenty-four elders present their crowns to Christ (4, 10).




The angel opens the book (5, 1-8)




The Adoration of the Lamb that was slain (5, 9-14).




The first panel of the lower register, which showed the Lamb receiving the book, is lost. The second panel shows the first horseman, who rides a white horse, and has a crown and bow (6, 2).




The second horseman is also lost; the third rides a black horse, and has a scale in his hands (6, 5).




The fourth horseman, Death, riding a pale horse (6, 8).




The vision of the souls of the martyrs underneath the altar (6, 9)




The reader of the second tapestry and the first panel of the upper register are both lost. The second panel shows the 144,000 signed, 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel (7, 1-8). Since this is read as the Epistle of the Mass of All Saints, they are symbolic represented by Saints of various classes: clergy, royalty, religious and laymen.




The angels receive the seven trumpets (8, 2).




The angel receives the incense which represents the prayers of the Saints (8, 3).




The angel pours the incense upon the earth (8, 5), and the first trumpet is blown (8, 7), bringing with it hail and fire.




A panel showing the effects of the first trumpet (8, 7) is lost; with the second trumpet (8, 8-9), a great mountain burning with first is cast into the sea, and a third part of the ships are destroyed.




The first panel of the lower register, the descent of the star called Wormwood (8, 10-11).




The fourth trumpet (8, 12-13): the darkening of the sun, moon and stars, and the coming of the great eagle that cries out “Woe, woe to those that dwell upon the earth.”




The fifth trumpet (9, 1-12): the locusts ascend from the pit.




The sixth trumpet (9, 13 etc.): the release of the four angels.




The riders on fire-breathing horses (9, 16 etc.)




The angel with seven thunders (10, 1-4)




St John eats the book (10, 8-10)

[Stone]

The Apocalypse Tapestries
(Part 2)

This is the second of three posts about one of the most remarkable artistic representations of the book of the Apocalypse, a series of six enormous tapestries created in Paris between 1377 and 1382. (See part one.) They were commissioned by Louis I (1339-84), the second son of King Jean II of France, and first Duke of Anjou; his grandson and third successor to his title, René, donated them to the cathedral of Angers, the capital of the duchy, in 1480. After being plundered and cut into pieces during the Revolution, the surviving parts were recovered in 1848; the third and fourth tapestries, the ones shown in this post, are basically intact. Each of them begins on the left with a man sitting under a Gothic baldachin, reading the Apocalypse from a book on a stand in front of him. There follow 14 scenes of St John’s visions arranged in the order of the book, running from left to right, first above and then below, making for 15 panels per tapestry, an original total of 90 scenes between the six. The images here are taken from this page of Wikimedia Commons, which shows the arrangement of the panels divided by tapestry (by PMR Maeyaert, CC BY-SA 4.0.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Tapestry

The reader of the third tapestry.




The measuring of the Temple, chapter 11, 1




The two witnesses, who have power to close the heavens. (11, 3-6)




The two witnesses are slain (11, 7)...




and lie unburied (11, 8).




They rise from the dead and ascend into heaven, after which, an earthquake levels a tenth part of the city where they were killed (11, 11-13.)




The seventh trumpet; the twenty-four elders elders worship God in heaven (11, 15-18).




St. John sees the temple opened up in heaven, and the vision of the woman clothed with the sun, who gives birth to a son, that a great dragon with seven heads waits to devour (11 19 - 12, 6).




St Michael and his angels make war on the dragon (12, 7-10)




The woman is given wings and escapes from the dragon (12, 13-14).




The dragon sends a great stream after the woman, which the earth swallows up (12, 15-16).




The dragon fights with those who keep the commandments of God (12, 17).




The dragon gives its power to the beast that came up from the sea, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its horns ten crowns (13, 2).




The adoration of the dragon (13, 4).




The adoration of the beast (13, 8).





The reader of the fourth tapestry.




The adoration of the beast.




The second beast makes fire fall from heaven (13, 13).




The second beast causes men to adore the image of the first one (13 14).




Men receive the mark of the beast (13, 17).




The adoration of the Lamb (14, 1).




The saved sing a new song before him (14, 2-3).




An angel flies through heaven, having the eternal Gospel (14, 6).




A second angel predicts the fall of Babylon (14, 8).




A third angel declares the punishment of those who worshipped the beast, which will take place in the sight of the angels and of the Lamb (14, 9-10).




The just are given rest, and St John is told to write “Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow them.” (14, 13, the Epistle for the daily Mass of the dead.)




The harvest of the earth (14, 15-16)




The angel gathers the vines (14, 18).




The harvest of grapes (14, 19)




The seven vials of the last plagues (15, 1)

[Stone]

The Apocalypse Tapestries
(Part 3)

NLM | November 24, 2023

This is the last of three posts about one of the most remarkable artistic representations of the book of the Apocalypse, a series of six enormous tapestries created in Paris between 1377 and 1382. They were commissioned by Louis I (1339-84), the second son of King Jean II of France, and first Duke of Anjou; his grandson and third successor to his title, René, donated them to the cathedral of Angers, the capital of the duchy, in 1480. Each of them begins on the left with a man sitting under a Gothic baldachin, reading the Apocalypse from a book on a stand in front of him. There follow 14 scenes of St John’s visions arranged in the order of the book, running from left to right, first above and then below, making for 15 panels per tapestry, an original total of 90 scenes between the six.

After being plundered and cut into pieces during the Revolution, the surviving parts were recovered in 1848. The fifth and sixth tapestries, the most badly damaged, are shown in this post; the former lost three full scenes and parts of two others, while the latter lost five, as well as its reader, and its last two scenes survive in fragments. The images here are taken from this page of Wikimedia Commons, which shows the arrangement of the panels divided by tapestry (by PMR Maeyaert, CC BY-SA 4.0.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Tapestry

The Reader of the Fifth Tapestry




The angels receive the “seven golden vials, full of the wrath of the living God.” (chapter 15, verse 7)




The first vial is poured out upon the earth (16, 2).




The second vial on the sea (16, 3).




The left side of this section, showing the third vial poured upon the rivers and fountains (16, 4), is lost; in the surviving half, the fourth vial is poured upon the sun (16, 8).




The fifth and sixth vials (16, 10-12).




Unclean spirits in the likeness of frogs come forth from the mouths of the dragon and the beast (17, 13).




The seventh vial is poured out upon the air (16, 17).




The angel shows St John “great harlot that sitteth upon the many waters.” (17, 1)




The harlot riding upon the beast (17, 3).




The Fall of Babylon (18, 2)




Here, there are missing three full scenes, of the Angel casting the millstone into the sea (18, 21), the harlot being cast down (19, 2), and the wedding of the Lamb (19, 7). In this last scene of the fifth tapestry (missing about a third on the right), St John writes at the angel’s instructions (19, 9-10).




The sixth tapestry is lacking its reader and the first two scenes of the upper register, which showed the rider on the white horse, who “treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty” (19, 15), and the birds which come to eat the flesh of the mighty whom he casts down (19, 17-18). Here, He fights with “the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war with Him” (19, 19).




He defeats them, and they are cast into the lake of fire (19, 20).




After another missing scene, of the dragon being chained (20, 1-2), we see the martyrs giving judgment (20, 4).




Satan attacks the beloved city (20, 8)




The first two scenes of the lower register are also missing, the devil cast down into the lake of fire (20, 10), and the Last Judgment (20, 12). Here we see St John’s vision of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, which is read as the Epistle on the feast of a church dedication (21, 2-5).




The angel measures the city (21, 15).




The river of the water of life (22, 1).




The surviving fragments of the last two sections of the lower register: St John and the Angel (22, 8), and before God (22, 9). Amen!