Apocalypse Drawing
Salzburg, Austria, ca. 1230
15 1/3 x 23 1/8 in. (39.5 x 58.5 cm)
Archabbey of Saint Peter, Salzburg
This large sheet of vellum was discovered folded and used for the binding of an account book for the years 1439 to 1470. Freehand drawings in brown ink illustrate the visions of John from the Throne in Heaven described in the Book of Revelation. Drawings such as this one may have had a role in devising the rich iconographic programs on the walls of several thirteenth-century chapels. Or it may have been kept in a scriptorium, quite possibly at Saint Peter’s, as an aide-memoire for a teacher or his students. See a detail of this drawing.