The Opening of the Fifth and Sixth Seal

The Opening of the Fifth and Sixth Seal by Albrecht Dürer is a masterful woodcut on laid paper, created in 1498. This dramatic German print belongs to the artist’s groundbreaking series illustrating the Book of Revelation, commonly known as the Apocalypse. Produced near the close of the 15th century, the work falls directly within the critical period of 1401 to 1500, capturing the profound religious and cultural anxieties of the time leading into the new millennium. Dürer’s decision to publish the series using the relatively inexpensive print medium allowed his complex theological visions to be widely distributed across Europe, fundamentally changing the role of the graphic arts.

The work depicts two sequential moments described in Revelation 6. On the left, the Fifth Seal is opened, revealing the martyred souls beneath the altar who demand vengeance from God. Dürer visualizes this moment as a crowd of naked figures receiving the symbolic white robes promised to them. On the right, the subsequent opening of the Sixth Seal unleashes cosmic disruption: the sun turns black, the moon turns blood-red, and a tremendous earthquake causes mountains and islands to shift. Dürer treats the surface of the wood block with unprecedented density and tonal variation, utilizing a dense network of lines to render the terrifying events with visceral immediacy. His command of the medium elevated the woodcut from a crude illustrative tool into a sophisticated vehicle for high drama.

This print is central to Dürer’s early fame, demonstrating his ability to merge the dramatic intensity of the emerging Italian Renaissance with the detailed precision of the Northern European Gothic tradition. The successful publication of the Apocalypse series solidified Dürer's reputation as the preeminent graphic artist of his era. Today, the enduring nature of these historical prints means that high-quality reproductions are often available through public domain collections. This specific, powerful impression is maintained within the esteemed permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, serving as a landmark example of 15th-century German printmaking.