Leaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Angels Restrain the Four Winds; the Angel Ascends from the Rising Sun

Leaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Angels Restrain the Four Winds; the Angel Ascends from the Rising Sun

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Illustrated Beatus manuscripts bring to life an extraordinary vision of the end of the world, as recorded by Saint John in the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation) and filtered through the lens of Beatus of Liébana, an eighth-century Asturian monk. These manuscripts are unique to medieval Spain and a testament to the pervasive artistry and intellectual milieu of monastic culture there. The leaf shown here comes from a manuscript disassembled in the 1870s. In the seventh chapter of the Apocalypse text, Saint John describes an angel commanding the winds to hold back their fury and protect the earth until God's people have been identified. He cried, "Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads." (Apoc. 7.3)

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Leaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Angels Restrain the Four Winds; the Angel Ascends from the Rising SunLeaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Angels Restrain the Four Winds; the Angel Ascends from the Rising SunLeaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Angels Restrain the Four Winds; the Angel Ascends from the Rising SunLeaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Angels Restrain the Four Winds; the Angel Ascends from the Rising SunLeaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Angels Restrain the Four Winds; the Angel Ascends from the Rising Sun

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.