Illustration from the Apocalypse de Saint Jean
Rufino Tamayo, Mexican, 1899 - 1991
1959
Color lithograph on wove paper
285
Impression: 12 3/4 × 19 7/8 in. (32.4 × 50.5 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Julia L. Whittier Fund
PR.965.98
Geography
Place Made: Mexico, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Research Area
Not on view
Inscriptions
Text on reverse.
Label
Death, portrayed as a skeletal rider atop a pale horse, defies gravity as he animatedly rides without saddle or reins, his arms thrown upward. His outwardly trained gaze and exaggeratedly contorted body engage with the print’s frantic lines, bold colors, and schematic forms. Tamayo brings to vivid life one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse as described by St. John in the Book of Revelation.
Tamayo rejects his Mexican contemporaries’ emphasis on political messages in favor of a universal, biblical image. The European world’s avant-garde blends with the artist’s interests in Mexican folk art, traditional bright colors, and a muralist’s flattened forms to convey this icon of Christian apocalyptic death.
From the 2024 exhibition, A Space for Dialogue 116, Apocalypse When: reflections on our collective psyche, Molly Rouzie '24, Homma Family Intern
Course History
Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Floriana Ciniglia, Winter 2024
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 116, Apocalypse When: reflections on our collective psyche, Molly Rouzie '24, Homma Family Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 6 - March 2, 2024
Provenance
Ferdinand Roten Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland; sold to present collection, 1965.
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