Opening of the Sixth Seal

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

In one of John’s first visions of the end of the world (Revelation 6:9–15), the opening of the sixth seal unleashes the Last Judgment. The sun and moon peeping out from under the altar suggests this breach marks an irrevocable astronomical as well as spiritual event. The pious dead—with their foreheads marked with a cross by God—rise into Heaven, while the gates of Hell open to receive those unworthy of salvation. Others, tormented into a crazed state by locusts, clamor for death and the fiery pit, which their satanic overlord is all too willing to grant.

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