1561
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
The Apocalypse: The Opening of the Seventh Seal is a 1561 by Jean Duvet, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see angels blowing trumpets, a dragon, and a crowd of tiny people all crammed onto one small rectangle. The sky is split open like a torn curtain. Duvet was a goldsmith before he made prints, so the scene looks like it’s stamped on a metal plaque—every line is sharp and packed tight. He worked alone in France, far from the big print shops in Germany and Italy, so his style stayed personal and a little rough. If you like how the figures feel carved instead of drawn, look up *sfumato*.
Jean Duvet was a goldsmith in Dijon, France, before taking up engraving. The relationship between the goldsmith’s art and that of the engraver is easily observed in this image of the opening of the seventh seal, a dramatic apocalyptic event at the end of the Book of Revelation from the New Testament. Figures crowd onto the image’s surface as they might appear on a metal plaque. Working outside the primary printmaking centers of Northern Europe and Italy, Duvet had little access to other printmakers and probably learned to engrave by studying prints by other masters. This is evident in his…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jean Duvet (1485 – after 1562) was a French Renaissance goldsmith and engraver, now best known for his engravings.
See the richer artist page
