Opening of the Sixth Seal
1555
Medium
Engraving in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet: 30.5 × 21.2 cm (12 1/16 × 8 3/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
4395
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In one of John’s first visions of the end of the world (Revelation 6:9–15), the opening of the sixth seal unleashes the Last Judgment. The sun and moon peeping out from under the altar suggests this breach marks an irrevocable astronomical as well as spiritual event. The pious dead—with their foreheads marked with a cross by God—rise into Heaven, while the gates of Hell open to receive those unworthy of salvation. Others, tormented into a crazed state by locusts, clamor for death and the fiery p...
About the Artist
Jean Duvet · 1485–1570
Jean Duvet (1485–after 1562), a pioneering French goldsmith and engraver from the provincial heartlands of Dijon and Langres, emerged as the first significant printmaker in France. Born to a Dijon goldsmith, he trained in the family trade and rose swiftly, becoming master of the Dijon Goldsmiths' Guild by 1509. Duvet's early career blended goldsmithing with engraving; no specific teachers are docu...