Four mounted figures surge diagonally across the scene, trampling a mass of writhing bodies beneath their horses’ hooves. Each horseman is distinct: at the front, a crowned archer draws his bow, his gaze fixed forward; beside him, a figure in a helmet swings a sword high above his head. The horses themselves are rendered with tense, muscular energy, their manes and tails flowing in the rush, and their legs tangled with the fallen below.

The lower half of the image is crowded with figures in agony: some shield their faces, others are crushed underfoot, and a crowned man is devoured by a monstrous beast at the bottom left. Dürer’s dense network of black lines, cross-hatching, and swirling curves creates dramatic contrasts of light and shadow, heightening the chaos and terror of the scene. The composition is tightly packed, with little empty space, drawing attention to every gesture, expression, and detail, from the intricate armor to the wild hair and desperate faces.

The artist’s monogram, ‘AD’, appears at the bottom center, anchoring the tumultuous action above. Billowing clouds fill much of the upper background, their curving forms sharply outlined in white against the dense black sky. In the upper left corner, a pair of scales dangles midair, suspended by a thin cord that disappears into the clouds.

The bottom right corner is crowded with overlapping bodies, including a figure with a turban who grasps at another’s arm as he falls. A skeletal horse and its gaunt rider, with exposed ribs and a wild beard, dominate the lower left quadrant, their forms rendered with stark, angular lines. The Four Horsemen, from The Apocalypse is created by Albrecht Dürer in the 1490s, during the period known as the German Renaissance. The work is executed on laid paper, a common support for prints of this era.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art lists this impression as a gift from Junius Spencer Morgan in 1919.