Nicolas Bataille

Opening of the Fifth Seal, from The Apocalypse of Angers, 1373–87, Tapestry, Musée des Tapisseries, Angers; Manuel Cohen / Art Resource, NY

Patient Martyrs

Commentary by Eric C. Smith

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When the fifth seal opens in Revelation 6:9–11, the plot shifts. The first four seals had each loosed a horseman, but the fifth seal opens instead onto a scene in heaven. Rather than looking only ahead to suffering and death still to come, as the first four seals and their four horsemen do, the fifth seal looks both backward to the suffering and death that have transpired in the past, and foreshadows more to come. ‘I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given’, writes the Revelator. The faith’s martyrs, the reader learns, have been gathered and gathering under heaven’s altar to await their justice. They are told that they will have to wait a while longer, and watch the number of the martyrs grow.

The Angers Apocalypse Tapestry is an early exquisite example of what was a burgeoning industry in fourteenth-century France. Beginning then, and continuing through the Renaissance, tapestry-weaving was one of Europe’s chief art forms, and one of its most prized. The Apocalypse Tapestry was commissioned by Louis I, Duke of Anjou, and woven over a decade in the 1370s and early 1380s. Rarely for a tapestry of that period, it is extant, mostly intact, in its restored form.

In this scene, the tapestry follows the martyrs from their place under the altar of heaven to their moment of supplication to the ‘Sovereign Lord, holy and true’. In response to their request for vengeance, the martyrs are given white robes by an angelic figure, shown here as a winged lion with human facial features, and told to wait a while longer. This scene interprets a part of Revelation that received a great deal of attention in popular imagination from antiquity to the present, with strong traditions understanding that martyrs had special proximity to God, and that a set number of martyrs would be fulfilled before God’s intervention. As traditions and practices of martyrdom developed within Christianity, this part of Revelation—giving martyrs pride of place in heaven—inspired both zealotry and devotion among believers.

 

References

Huber, Lynn R., with Gail R. O’Day. 2023. Revelation, ed. by Amy-Jill Levine, Wisdom Commentary 58 (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press) pp. 81–95

O’Hear, Natasha, and Anthony O’Hear. 2015. Picturing the Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation in the Arts over Two Millennia (Oxford: Oxford University Press) pp. 93–110

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Revelation 6

Revised Standard Version

6Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say, as with a voice of thunder, “Come!” 2And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.

3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4And out came another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that men should slay one another; and he was given a great sword.

5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I saw, and behold, a black horse, and its rider had a balance in his hand; 6and 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!”

7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death, and Hades 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.

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; 10they cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?” 11Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale; 14the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong, and every one, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?”

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