Apocalypse In Art

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Viktor Vasnetsov (Romanticism 1887)

Posted by Benji, Michael, and Weston , Wednesday, May 19, 2010 6:16 AM

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was painted in the time of the Russian Revivalism, which was also in the same time as the Romantist movement. The Russians were a semi-religious nation. Also they had hard lives especially the peasants who were trying to make it by. This would make the painting which looks very unhappy a good interpretation of not only what the Russian people were going through but how the Russian people would view the Apocalypse if it happened. As well as the peasant, the artist’s father was a priest in rural Russia so Viktor Vasnetsov had a good idea about the bible along with the fact that he probably suffered through most of what the four horsemen were. The four horsemen are in the bible, depicted as four signs for the apocalypse to come, a red horse with his rider symbolized war and slaughter. A black horse being ridden by a man who was carrying scales represents the scarcity of food or famine. Next there is the white horse which is ridden by a deathly man which symbolizes death. The final rider however is the one that the artist would not have encountered. This is the antichrist riding atop a white horse. Not only would the artist, Viktor Vasnetsov had seen this, but most people throughout Europe would have seen for the most part 2 of the 4 horses, death and starvation since war was not very prevalent then. Also, with the rest of Europe, came the Industrial Revolution. As we mentioned before, Viktor Vasnetsov was a Russian Revivalist. This is pretty much a Russian form of Romanticism as well as several other artistic movements. Many Romanticists wanted to return back to the old ways of the gothic times which we believed was a dark time, in fact the gothic era of art was during the dark ages. However, during this time, people also became wary, possibly even fearful of the rapid Industrialization, and some began to speculate the lasting effects of such Industrialization.