Titled “Apocalypse: Biblical Prophecies from Dürer to Béla Kondor,” the exhibition centers around prominent print series, including woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach the Elder, copperplate engravings by Jean Duvet, and later lithographs by Odilon Redon.

On view through September 20, the display features approximately 100 works and concludes with interpretations by 20th-century Hungarian artists.

During a press preview on Thursday, Szilvia Bodnár, an art historian with the museum’s Graphic Arts Collection and the exhibition's curator, noted that the museum houses numerous illustration series dedicated to the final book of the New Testament.

This particular exhibition highlights four of those primary series. Alongside the complete cycles, the display includes popular standalone apocalyptic subjects, such as John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos and Saint Michael defeating the dragon.

The introductory section features Albrecht Dürer’s 1498 woodcut series, widely recognized by art historians as a landmark advancement that established the woodcut as an independent artistic medium.

The chronological journey continues into the Reformation era with the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder. When Martin Luther published his new German translation of the New Testament in September 1522, he commissioned Cranach to illustrate the Book of Revelation to make the theological text more accessible to the public.

Representing the French Renaissance, graphic artist Jean Duvet completed a 23-plate series of copperplate engravings around 1555, nineteen of which are presented in this exhibition.

Moving into the late 19th century, the exhibition illustrates a shift in stylistic approach with the work of Odilon Redon. A prominent figure in the French Symbolist movement, Redon departed from traditional narrative storytelling.

Rather than illustrating chronological events, his lithographs focus on isolated figures and motifs that evoke the spirit of the text, accompanied by titles drawn directly from scriptural quotations.

The display also allocates a dedicated section to Sigmund Hebenstreit’s stained-glass window designs, which depict three specific scenes from the eighth chapter of the Book of Revelation.

The exhibition closes with a final section dedicated to 20th-century Hungarian artists, highlighting works by Béla Kondor, Béla Stettner, and Kálmán Csohány.

The pieces featured in this half-millennium survey of apocalyptic art were selected from the institutional holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts — specifically the Graphic Arts Collection, the Old Picture Gallery, and the Old Hungarian Collection — as well as from the Graphic Arts Department and Contemporary Collection of the Hungarian National Gallery.

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Museum of Fine Arts

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