And the sixth angel sounded his trumpet and I heard, from the four corners of the gold altar, the angel that was in the presence of God 14. saying to the sixth angel holding the trumpet, “Set the four angels who are bound in the great Euphrates river free”. 15. And the four angels were released of their bonds - commencing the persecution - prepared for the hour, the day, the month and the year when they were to exterminate one third of men. 16. The number, he said, of the components of the armies was two myriad myriads. I myself heard the number of them.
Here, Magius once again differs from the illustrations in the Osma and Lorvao Beatus in which the angels bound in the Euphrates river are wingless. The creation in the Escalada Beatus is mirrored directly in both branches of version II. The full-page illustration in the Leon model is smaller in the others, the Gerona Beatus being the direct source used by the Museo Arqueológico Nacional Beatus, which in turn inspired the Rylands Beatus (fol. 132v) -even repeating its irregular frame. The great flow of the Euphrates river is suggested by a row of large fish across the bottom of the illustration. An angel sounds a trumpet in front of the altar at the top and sounds it again after hearing the voices coming from the altar, causing the holy figure in front of God on his throne in the left-hand corner, to divide into two. Unlike in the Gerona Beatus where God sits sideways on the chair, here he sits on his throne decorated with lions heads and a Byzantine cushion facing forwards. The sky is suggested by means of a golden semi-circle. The Arroyo Beatus adds a scene of hell -a new element different from the illustration under study- related to the following illustration (fol. 99r).
Ángela Franco Mata
Chief of the Medieval Antiquities Department, Museo Arqueológico Nacional
(Fragment of the Cardeña Beatus commentary volume)
f. 11B, The angel with the sixth trumpet: the angels of the river Euphrates
And the sixth angel sounded his trumpet and I heard, from the four corners of the gold altar, the angel that was in the presence of God 14. saying to the sixth angel holding the trumpet, “Set the four angels who are bound in the great Euphrates river free”. 15. And the four angels were released of their bonds - commencing the persecution - prepared for the hour, the day, the month and the year when they were to exterminate one third of men. 16. The number, he said, of the components of the armies was two myriad myriads. I myself heard the number of them.
Here, Magius once again differs from the illustrations in the Osma and Lorvao Beatus in which the angels bound in the Euphrates river are wingless. The creation in the Escalada Beatus is mirrored directly in both branches of version II. The full-page illustration in the Leon model is smaller in the others, the Gerona Beatus being the direct source used by the Museo Arqueológico Nacional Beatus, which in turn inspired the Rylands Beatus (fol. 132v) -even repeating its irregular frame. The great flow of the Euphrates river is suggested by a row of large fish across the bottom of the illustration. An angel sounds a trumpet in front of the altar at the top and sounds it again after hearing the voices coming from the altar, causing the holy figure in front of God on his throne in the left-hand corner, to divide into two. Unlike in the Gerona Beatus where God sits sideways on the chair, here he sits on his throne decorated with lions heads and a Byzantine cushion facing forwards. The sky is suggested by means of a golden semi-circle. The Arroyo Beatus adds a scene of hell -a new element different from the illustration under study- related to the following illustration (fol. 99r).
Ángela Franco Mata
Chief of the Medieval Antiquities Department, Museo Arqueológico Nacional
(Fragment of the Cardeña Beatus commentary volume)
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