Albrecht Durer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a beautiful woodcut and while Durer is given credit for the drawing it is possible that he did not carve the tedious hatching lines himself. This print is phenomenal because of its intricacies. Considering it had to be carved into wood the detail is phenomenal and the scene, albeit a bit gruesome, is mythical as well particularly with the angel swooping amongst the clouds. Ironically, while the angel is swooping down from the top of the print, there are people being trampled underfoot at the bottom of the print and a beast with its mouth wide open, swallowing them.
Contrasting to Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is Raphael’s drawing The Judgment of Paris, engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi. This drawing is taken from mythology more so than Four Horseman of the Apocalypse yet it lacks the gruesome death of humanity. There is no disease in the drawing. In fact, the scene depicted does not even have the mortality of humans in it. Instead it is filled with the beautiful images of greek gods and goddesses. Coincidentally the “angel” in this drawing is in the upper center portion of the piece as well, only slightly lower than where Durer's angel is depicted. Only there are no horses following him. In fact in this drawing the horsemen are heading in the opposite direction and not gruesomely trampling humans underfoot which is always a plus.
Despite this, I prefer Durer’s woodcut. Raphael’s and Raimondi’s engraving is more ascetically pleasing and “beautiful” but every time I glance back at Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse I notice something new, something different that I had not seen the last time and it draws me in all over again whereas in The Judgement of Paris, my mind basically just sees a gathering of beautiful people. It just does not have the same illustrative quality.
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