Polyptych of the Apocalypse

The Book of Revelation, with its seven-headed beast and its falling city of Babylon, was painted often in medieval churches to the north, yet on Italian panels it is rare, which makes this one unusual. Jacobello Alberegno, a Venetian working in the second half of the 14th century, laid out several scenes from Revelation across the panels, among them the Lamb enthroned and the great harlot of Babylon riding a seven-headed beast. It was made for the church of a Benedictine convent on Torcello, the quiet island in the northern lagoon that had once been Venice's crowded rival and by then was emptying out. So these visions of a world ending were painted for a small community of nuns in a place that was itself slowly going still. The panels were later gathered here, reassembled from that island church.