Current Issue:
Summer 2004
Four Horses of the Apocalypse
Oil by Sharlene Lindskog Osorio
- Four Horses of the Apocalypse - by Sharlene Lindskog-Osorio
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Through my life I have been blessed by the sacred scriptures of the Bible, and believe it to be the Word of God. My inspiration for this piece, the Four Horses of the Apocalypse, resulted from my study of the Bible's Book of Revelation, Chapter 6, verses 1-8. The horses mentioned in the chapter were prophetic symbols representing particular time periods in Christianity's history, from the days of the Apostles and their proclamation of the gospel of Christ, on through the time of great spiritual darkness, apostasy, and martyrdom (AD 30-AD 1565). The four horses are described as follows: A white horse - the Conqueror, a fiery red horse - war, a black horse - famine, and a pale horse - death. These symbols were given to the Apostle John when he was persecuted and exiled on the lonely isle of Patmos, a small island between Greece and Asia.
It was there on that island that he was given a vision from God and commanded to record what he saw in a book that became the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Holy Bible. From the first Chapter to the last comes a series of events shown under various symbols of seals, trumpets, beasts, horsemen, angels, and others. They give the history of the Christian church and of the world until the end of time and beyond, including the complete eradication of evil and a new heaven and a new earth.
Studying the subject of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse encouraged the spark of inspiration within me to depict their mighty horses in a painting.
When the inspiration grabbed hold of me, I imagined the four horsemen on their mounts swiftly galloping upon the clouds in the heavens, attired accordingly in representation of what each symbolized. In the distance I could see the beautiful heavens in warm sunset colors, layered with various cloud formations, highlighted by the golden rays of the sun. The heavens roared with thunder and crashed with lightening shooting across the sky in every direction. My imagination ran wild on this one. Their beautiful horses were fiery with the spirit of the wind.
In my painting, I depicted the horses with the likeness of purebred Arabians and portrayed them with fire in their nostrils to add a more dramatic supernaturalness to the piece. I painted the nostrils of the pale horse dark as it seemed appropriate for the one that symbolizes death emerging from the darkness of the grave. He breathes a cold, death-like vapor. The golden tack was somewhat of a challenge. I designed the pieces from the ideas I received from seeing some of the ancient war tack. Much of it was original.
I could have done a full body depiction of the four horsemen on their horses but decided to put that one on the back burner and to do a portrayal of only the horses, as they were the subjects that I had inspiration for at the time. There are times that I love to paint especially dramatic subjects and this certainly was one of those times. However, once it was completed, I was ready for a more peaceful and serene subject for my next painting.
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