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Original fileThe Third and Fourth Trumpets of the Apocalypse
BambergApocalypseFolio021rThirdTrumpet
About This Work
An illuminated manuscript page depicting two scenes from the Revelation of John. On the left, a winged angel with a gold nimbus blows a trumpet over two nude figures lying in water; above them, a star with red and gold rays descends. On the right, a second angel in a dark mantle stands in the water, looking upward and gesturing with a raised hand toward a celestial light. The background is a flat field of gold leaf, while the water below is rendered in stylized blue waves, and the border is a thick red frame.
This illumination is part of the Bamberg Apocalypse, a seminal early 11th-century manuscript that serves as a visual commentary on the biblical Book of Revelation. It reflects the Ottonian tradition of combining prophetic text with sophisticated symbolic imagery to depict the end-times.
Inscriptions(Latin)
aquarum inabsinthium & multi hominum mortui sunt de aquis quia amarae facte sunt. Et quartus angelus tuba cecinit. Et percussa est tercia pars solis & lune & tercia pars stellarum ut obscuraretur tercia pars eorum ut dies non luceret pars tercia & noctis similiter.
Translation
The waters became wormwood, and many of the men died of the waters because they were made bitter. (Rev 8:11) And the fourth angel sounded the trumpet: and the third part of the sun, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars was smitten, so that the third part of them might be darkened, and the day might not shine for a third part of it, and the night in like manner. (Rev 8:12)
Connected Texts
Book of Revelation (8:10-12)
The image directly illustrates the blowing of the third and fourth trumpets by the angels of the Apocalypse.