The Taking of the Beast and the False Prophet

The illumination is divided into two registers against a gold-leaf background. In the upper register, two men in tunics and mantles assist a mounted knight in green and white, who holds a sword. In the lower register, a monstrous beast with a shark-like head and scaled body emerges from a dark, jagged pit representing the lake of fire; a man is bound to the beast's tail. Two men to the right react with gestures of alarm or supplication, one wearing a red mantle and the other yellow. The figures are rendered in the characteristic flat, expressive style of Romanesque manuscript illumination.

This work is a page from the Bamberg Apocalypse, an 11th-century illuminated manuscript containing the Book of Revelation. It reflects the intense eschatological focus of the Ottonian period and the medieval Church's interpretation of the final battle between good and evil.