An event exhibition on visions of the end of time

Profile turned towards the sky, a knee on the ground, an arm folded on the chest, the young man with long blond hair seems to prey to a spectacular vision. Above his head surrounded by a halo, points that of an eagle. To this symbol, we recognize the evangelist Jean de Patmos, who holds under his left hand the book he is about to write, the apocalypse. It is to this text on the end of time, including the watercolor of the symbolist painter Gustave Moreau offers a chamarked interpretation, that the National Library of France (BNF) devotes its major spring exhibition.

For the church, the apocalypse of John reads as a “revelation” (translation of the Greek apokalupsis ), an announcement of the Parousia, the glorious return of Christ, and the establishment of his eternal kingdom. But the artists were mainly inspired by the visions of the apostle which provide them with a real catalog of grandiose and nightmarish images: the opening of the seven seals, the four horsemen sowing death and desolation, the great prostitute of Babylona mounted on a beast with seven heads and ten horns, etc.

Detours or echo games

From enlightening monks of the Middle Ages to contemporary visual artists via Albrecht Dürer, the German Renaissance genius, or William Blake, the English prerogative to the visionary palette, the exhibition of the BNF declines this apocalyptic theme until the 7th art. From the entrance, we are greeted by an extract from Melancholia, The film by Lars von Trier in which the earth is doomed to an imminent collision with a huge planet …

“Apocalypse. Yesterday and tomorrow “does not unfold in a binary way, by presenting the ancient masters on the one hand and on the other the modern, but gradually, with detours or echo games; So with the surrealist boards of Natural history, of Max Ernst or wood paintings like the Flemish or Italian primitives signed Laurent Grasso (born in 1972).

End of time

Exhibition center: the exceptional Beatus of Saint-Sever, BNF jewel. This sublimely illuminated 11th century book is the only French copy of the Johannic story commented by a Spanish abbot, Beatus of Liébana. Its representation of the flood, given as a biblical prefiguration of the end of time, with these bodies contorted with pain is striking. Picasso will remember when he paint his own apocalyptic vision of the Spanish civil war, Warnica . In the room dedicated to Beatus of Saint-Sever, The visitor can leaf through the manuscript thanks to a digital device. For amateurs, a specially created video game is even offered free from the BNF*website.

Another major medieval creation highlighted by the exhibition: the Praising the apocalypse, monumental 14th century tapestry preserved at the Château d’Angers (Maine-et-Loire), whose fragments have been exceptionally loaned.

Salvation light

In the apocalypse of Jean de Patmos, the horror visions to come in this world, here below, are bought by the final victory of good on evil, with the Parousia. This luminous dimension of salvation has faded over the centuries and also seems to disappear over the exhibition journey and the increasingly secularized eras. Engravings by Jacques Callot – among which his famous Hungry tree – to the desolate landscapes of Auschwitz via claims War disasters, by Francisco de Goya … We only see the disaster.

But perhaps lucidity can be the beginning of a path. With Thunder, A video that stages a choreography of survivors in the Roya valley after the Alex storm of 2020, the French artist Lola Gonzalez, born in 1988, invites us to “look in front of a community that understands what happens to him”. Like prophetic words, art can, through signs and visions, invite action and hope.

* Essential.bnf.fr