The Apocalypse grips everyone’s mind and the sounding of the Seven Trumpets is one of the most action packed parts of the story of Revelations. Let’s look at Dürer’s depiction of the Seven Trumpets.

We also have a very strange clue in the hair of God in the upper center of the print.  Cleverly hidden in the hair but to the side is an “I5” or an “IJ” or a “J5” or a “JS” yet to be deciphered as to its meaning.  Here’s your chance to make a mark in art history: decode what the symbols in the hair of God means.

OOPS, IT’S NOT AN EAGLE!

But the clearest clue hidden in plain sight is the eagle-which is NOT an eagle.  First of all, the eagle, according to the storyline, is supposed to be swooping upwards in the sky, Dürer  has the bird swoop down.

Secondly, it’s not an eagle, and we know this by the shape of the tail feathers.  Bird tail feathers are used for giving signals or messages to other birds and Dürer ’s bird gives us a message.  An eagle’s tail is not forked like the bird Dürer  depicts as we can see in this picture.

http://img.ehowcdn.com/article-new/ehow/images/a05/k9/3h/purpose-bird_s-tail-feathers-800×800.jpg

So what kind of bird is this with a forked tail?  It’s what’s known as a European kite or goshawk.  And in Hungary, the land of Dürer ’s ancestry, the goshawk was known as the Turul, a very important mythic image. It was the great bird resembling a falcon that was sent forth by Isten to guide the creation and destiny of the Magyar people. The first Hungarian kings after St Stephen I were the hereditary of the Turul (“Turul nemzetség”)

For more on the Hungarian Turul, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turul

WHAT’S THE REAL SECRET?

So why was Dürer  putting a Turul in the middle of Seven Trumpets?  He was giving us some sort of Hungarian message and some sort of Jewish message.  Feel free to leave your answers as comments.

More to come.

Stay tuned for more of the Apocalypse.