The Lamb before the Elders, Revelation 5: 8-10
The Great East Window of York Minster is the largest expanse of stained glass in England, about the size of a tennis court. It takes on relating visually key stories of the Old Testament as a prelude to depicting the Book of Revelation in its entirety. The glaziers were mighty ambitious to take on a 10,000-word text and relate it in 81 panels. However, if there was ever a book which lent itself to being told in pictures, the York East Window is certainly it.
While the book of prophecy contains many vivid details of what monsters and certain characters look like, what those figures symbolize is the subject of hundreds of writings from the past 19 centuries. The artists who planned the glass panels kept strictly to the concrete details of the text, and were probably guided by an illuminated manuscript of Revelation (here is a link to several, but not the Durham Apocalypse, which I couldn't find digitized free online). It wouldn't be fair to dismiss the panels as mere copies of book illustrations, though. Stained glass is a difficult medium in which to work; numerous decisions must be made about when to use colored glass in how many pieces, and when to paint details on the glass. Not to mention the difficulty of fusing the pieces into a whole with toxic lead.
All this is to say that the makers of the glass tableaux, much like artisans who carved bas reliefs, had to create something striking and distinctive, all the while adhering to the constraints of conventions in medieval religious art, and the approval of the clerical official commissioning the work.
As we turn here to focusing on the magical creatures in the Apocalypse window, I will describe the features in the animals/beasts which set them apart from the natural animals in the Old Testament panels above.
When the subject of the Christian Apocalypse comes up in this time, the figures which most Westerners know about are the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Strangely and more specifically, modern people are more interested in the horses than the horsemen and their accoutrements. I chalk this up as happening because people can recognize and remember horses more easily than any particulars of the riders.
Overall, I've read roughly six different interpretations of the living creatures and the horsemen, each coming from credible scholarship. I looked for some basic consensus, but it seems that the interpretations vary from time of interpretation, who (secular or clergy) is doing the interpreting, and the agenda of the interpreter. I throw up my hands at giving you something definitive in the description. John does not identify their significations in the text, so I'll keep to the bare bones description of what is in the panel.
First Seal: The First Horseman of the Apocalypse, Revelation 6:1-2
The first horseman arrives after the Lamb of God (Christ) breaks the first seal of the book of prophecies which John of Patmos is charged with reporting. The horseman carries a bow and wears a crown, symbolizing curse of Conquest over the land. Conquest is great for rulers and poetry, but calamitous for those whose land is being conquered. The horseman portends brutal instability in the End Times. I am unsure why white is significant in the horse's color. With him, too, in the panel is one of the Four Living Creatures, the winged lion. The lion is another symbol of Christ, symbolizing his dominion over the earthly realm.
Second Seal: The Second Horseman of the Apocalypse, Revelation 6:3-4
The red horse here is closer to rust in color. I think this is because ruby red is used in dozens of panels as background, clothing, flames, or wings. The horseman is typically identified as symbolizing civil war in the End Times, distinguishing it from the first horseman, who is often interpreted to symbolize crushing secular rule from afar (such as the emperors of Rome). The ox member of the Four Living Creatures gets right in John's face, as though to ensure that John writes the vision in full detail. The lamb looks solemn and purposeful as he continues to break the seals. Beneath the horse's hooves are jumbled pieces, generally looking like people in murderous combat. These were probably placed by recent restorers to compensate for damage in the panel.
Third Seal: The Third Horseman of the Apocalypse, Revelation 6: 5-6
The third horseman rides a black horse, and you can see the dilemma that posed to the glaziers. I'm pretty sure that the white patches on the horse are damage done to the glass, because they match similar damage in other scenes. The horseman himself carries a balance and its empty pans. Differing theories suggest the horseman represents pestilence, famine, and judgment. All three could work. All four Living Creatures surround the Lamb, and the text says that "and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, 'A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not harm oil and wine!'" It's a bit enigmatic as a quote, even for this text. It would help to know whether a denarius for these items was exorbitant, which is what my guess is. The balance though, in the early 1400s would remind the Christian viewer of the judgment of Archangel Michael, who is often depicted using a balance to weigh souls on Judgment Day. On the other hand, famine and pestilence are logical outcomes of the unleashing of conquest and war upon the world.
The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, Revelation 6:7-8
The fourth horseman, who holds a spear, is Death, on his notorious pale horse (the Greek is "khloros," translated as "pale," suggests the greenish pallor of death). This horse is made with white glass, however, for some practical or stylistic reason, perhaps. What's special here is that the artists decided to create the horse in a difficult (to depict) posture: the horse is in the act of turning toward John, and we can see its face only in a quarter-profile. Its lavish mane is given more detail and attention. Perhaps this was done to make room for the dead to be seen in its wake. Also, the panel contains an unfortunately distorted remnant of "... Hades [who] followed him; and they were given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth." What did the artist do to create "Hades," a pagan god of the underworld? The restorers gathered what they could of the panel's fragments, but the monster is a jumble of lion-like features and fragments of dead people.
The text suggests to me that each horseman creates conditions which lead to the curse of the subsequent one. Overbearing conquest incites civil war, which results in famine or pestilence, which leaves a great deal of death in its wake.
Fifth Trumpet: Locust Monsters and The Angel of the Bottomless Pit Revelation 9: 1-11
Our next monstrous creatures occur three verses and some panels later. They are an army of torturers for those not marked "saved" by God. These creatures are a very complicated hybrid concoction, and I am impressed that the artists could take on such a complicated description:
"In appearance the locusts were like horses arrayed for battle; on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lions' teeth; they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails like scorpions, and stings, and their power of hurting men for five months lies in their tails. They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abad'don, and in Greek he is called Apol'lyon."
I wonder if here, as with the Hades creature above, this panel has been damaged and reassembled with found fragments, for the locust/scorpion bodies are hidden by the green glass, which might have been used by the restorers to stand in for a locust's green body. The fabulous underbite with tusk-like teeth remain, along with the human faces, but all the other details are missing. The figure of Appol'lyon seems disjointed, although the pieces in place are true to the description.
Sixth Trumpet: The Army with Lion-headed/Serpent-tailed Horses Revelation 9: 16-19
Another army is unleashed, it, too, containing hybrid creatures. The "horses" of the cavalry have heads like lions, which spew sulfur and smoke. The lion in the bottom of the frame is the only one I can imagine as spewing anything. They may have lions' heads to signal that these creatures are doing the work of the Lord, who is represented elsewhere as a lion. If you look closely in the lower-right of the frame, you can see that the lion-horse has a serpent in its tail.
Seventh Trumpet: The Woman Clothed with the Sun with the Red Dragon Revelation 12: 1
Tragically, the full view of this panel from the floor is impossible now, due to tracery supports blocking it. This panel (and verse) is a re-visioning of the Nativity. Mary is the woman clothed with the sun, who is menaced by a seven-headed red dragon, identified in the text as Satan. She is giving birth to the Christ.
Here is the full image taken during the 2018 restoration by the York Glazier's Trust:
The verse says that Mary gave birth in great pain, but the artists skipped right over that one, having an angel rush-deliver her child from heaven. Quite a bit of loving imagination has been applied to depicting her: to create sun-like clothing the artists place a mandorla of rays emanating from her. She is supposed to have twelve stars above her, but they opted for 5, to give her a crown. Her feet rest on a crescent moon.
I finally put 2 and 2 together about this description of Mary in revelation and the innumerable images of Mary I've seen, both medieval and later. In churches where, years ago, I'd thought that references to Revelation were kept to the tympanum only, I now realize that sculptures of Mary with stars above her, and a crescent and dragon beneath her feet were quite common. The Mary crushing the dragon at her feet is quite different from the Mary as enthroned queen-mother, or the humble Mary beside the manger. Here, her act of creation is to birth the warrior messiah who will defeat evil. The text indicates that the birth of Christ sets the war in heaven into motion.
The dragon is badly damaged here, but his curling tail is intact. It is faithful to the texts, which says the tail sweeps down a third of the stars in heaven and casts them to the earth. His scale and placement in the center of the panel allow him to dominate the scene, but Mary is above him and in brighter colors, so she "pops" in the composition. Her rays of sun surround her and seem to act as protection from the dragon.
The Red Dragon Empowers the Beast Revelation 13: 1-3
This is my favorite panel in the whole window. The red dragon meets up with the Beast and passes the scepter to him. The texts suggests that this event is Satan empowering an agent on earth to blaspheme and spread evil. Each head of the beast has a little horn, which holds in place a crown. The main head has four horns and crowns. This beast embodies the various governments and lands which will pervert Christianity on earth. Perhaps it's just my modern, secular-aged self, but these monsters do not look scary. They are vibrant here, with faces that resemble exuberant pets more than ultimate evil.
The Beast Blasphemes Revelation 13: 4-6
This panel shows the Beast carrying out his charge. The men listening to him are from different spheres of privilege and power: three richly-dressed clergymen and two in the rear who resemble merchants or secular authorities.
The Beast Wages War with the Righteous Revelation 13: 7
The work of the Beast continues in this frame, where he attacks those who refuse to worship Satan. I love the head that is taking a chomp out of the shoulder of the man in red. Not sure what's going on with the monk under the Beast's paw.
The Second Beast Revelation 13: 11-14
If the Beast with seven heads and the Red Dragon were not enough to spread corrupt and destroy people in the End Times, yet another (single-headed) beast emerges. From the text, it appears that he is deputized to do more of the work of the first Beast. In this scene, he brings down fire from heaven. The artists in this panel represented this with rays, but not like those of the Woman Clothed with the Sun. They are in lower contrast than hers, with orange and scarlet in a blood-red sky.
The Whore of Babylon Rides the Beast Revelation 17: 1-5
But, wait! We have one more evil character to introduce in the vision of John: the Whore of Babylon, riding the Beast with seven heads. The text reads:
"Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who is seated upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk." And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead was written a name of mystery: "Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth's abominations."And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
When I saw her I marveled greatly."
Well, that's a tall order to convey visually, so, the ever-efficient artists stick to the concrete details, and leave out the abstract ones. The whore is dressed as a very rich woman, with her purple-and-red dress, orange belt, a large crown, and a delicate golden snood over her hair. She carries a goblet with snakes and a frog writhing within it (representing abominations). The grey triangle to the left of her head is, I believe, a snake curling behind her. It's supposed to relate to the snake body next to her neck on the other side. I love how she rides side-saddle on the Beast, with a richly-embroidered cloth covering his flanks, as one would place on a horse in a medieval tournament. Much to my disappointment, this is her only appearance in the great window.
The Beast Cast into a Lake of Fire Revelation 19:20
As the Apocalypse draws to its conclusion, we have three panels depicting an angel controlling one of the evil creatures in Hell. Strangely, the creatures are drawn differently from the panels preceding them. In the image above, an angel casts the beast into a pool of fire in Hell. This looks like the second beast, although the text doesn't differentiate in this passage. The beast, as depicted here, has a strange posture and expression: he appears to be lounging comfortably, and his seems to be smiling. There is no lake to be seen.
Satan (the Red Dragon) chained in the Bottomless Pit Revelation 20: 1-3
Next, the Red Dragon (Satan) is cast into a pit, chained, and buried, though it's only temporary. He's detained until the last round of the War in Heaven. His face is obscured, but there's enough detail there to infer that he's not very dragon-like. Perhaps the original glass was too damaged, but the result here is that it looks as though he is melting into flames within the pit. The chains are really well done here and below. I never considered how difficult it would be to fit thin, linear pieces of glass into a composition that's much more free-form.
Satan Freed to Gather an Army Revelation 20: 7-8
At last, we have the panel where he is freed--freed to be vanquished decisively at the right time. Once again, the Red Dragon's form is amorphous. We see a detailed face, a tongue, and perhaps two paws. That tricky chain is laid carefully into the composition. It appears that the face of the angel has been cracked, but hasn't shattered, so it remains preserved here. The proud, detailed monsters in the earlier parts of Revelation are much diminished by the artists who composed the last panels.
The Damned are Judged and Condemned to Hell Revelation 20: 12-15
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