Original woodcut with 1/4 inch margins and Durer's monogram signature. A plate from the series "The Apocalypse" from the 1511 Latin text edition, with Latin text on the verso. In excellent condition.

Image size: 15 3/8" x 11"; Sheet size: 15 3/4" x 11 3/8"
Catalogue reference: Strauss 46; Bartsch 74; Meder 175

"The Beast with Two Horns like a Lamb" is Dürer’s depiction of a scene from the New Testament, from the book of Revelation, chapters xiii-xiv. Dürer’s version closely resembles the illustrations in the Quentell Bible from Cologne, 1480 and from the Grüninger Bible from Strassburg, 1485.

Revelation xiii: (1) Then I saw a beast come up from the sea with ten horns and seven heads, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the names of blasphemy. (2) The beast I saw was like a leopard, and his feet as those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority. (3) And one of his headswas as if stricken to death, and the death blow had been healed; and all the world followed the beast in amazement. (11) And then I saw another beast coming out of the ground, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. Revelation xiv: (14) And I looked, and beheld a white cloud, and sitting upon the cloud one who was like the Son of Man, wearing upon his head a crown of gold, and in his hands a sharp sickle. (17) And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.