From the middle of sixteenth century such visions in the sky began to be depicted in popular broadsheets. (a large piece of paper printed on one side only with information) More often than not their message was distinctly apocalyptic, as can be seen from this German woodcut from 1566 entitled ‘True Description of a Vision . . . over Dessau (Plate 2.9). Surrounded by clouds and stars a horseman, a heavily armoured knight, gallops across the sky toward a half-moon surrounded by a halo, underneath which hangs a spread eagle. The text underneath the woodcut informs the reader that this vision prophesies great suffering from Germany in the days of leading up to the return of Christ and the Day of Judgment. Furthermore the text indicates that this horseman is none other than the White Horsman -- Christ, the Conqueror from the Book of Revelation. The eagle, on the other hand, may represent several things: it might refer to the author of the Apocalypse, being the sumbol of John the Evangelist; it might be the eagle of woe ‘to those who dwell on earth’ from Revelation 8:13; and finally it might be the Habsburg eagle indicating the predicaments of the Holy Roman Empire then fighting the Ottoman Turks in Hungary. ~ Page 80
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Dinesh said: