Image Details

The Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource, NY

Vision of the lamb. The divine world rotates around Jesus, portrayed as the Lamb of God, in this tenth-century illumination from Beatus de Liebana’s Commentary on the Apocalypse. The “four living creatures” of Revelation 4:6—a winged man, ox, eagle and lion (clockwise from bottom)—surround the throne; beneath them crouch the four evangelists—Matthew, Luke, John and Mark—whom these animals came to symbolize. (The same animals appear in Ezekiel’s vision [1:10] of a fantastic hybrid creature.) Between the winged creatures are the elders who, according to Revelation 5:8, surrounded the throne, carrying harps and golden bowls of incense. At each corner of the celestial sphere rests an angel who sings the praises of the Lamb (Revelation 5:11).