Angel Casting a Millstone into the Sea

This manuscript illumination features a central angel with dark, feathered wings and a circular, golden halo around its head. The figure wears a long, white undergarment draped with a dark, purplish-brown cloak that billows out behind it, emphasizing movement. The angel is barefoot, stepping across a dark blue surface patterned with rhythmic, white wavy lines signifying water. The background is divided horizontally into a band of soft pink at the top and a solid deep brown below, creating a stark, flat spatial arrangement.

This image illustrates the vision from the Book of Revelation (18:21), where a mighty angel casts a great millstone into the sea to symbolize the future destruction of Babylon. It is part of the Bamberg Apocalypse, a seminal Ottonian illuminated manuscript produced in the early 11th century, commissioned by either Emperor Otto III or Henry II.