14th Century Artist in the Modern World: ‘Four Horsemen’ by Florian Bertmer

 

The end of human life on this planet will most likely arrive in the form of man-crafted annihilation, but those early Christians foresaw something far more epic. The Four Horsemen as spoken of in the Old Testament are interpreted as punishments from God. In The Book of Ezekiel, they are referred to as, ‘sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague.’ For his take on the mythic figures for publisher House of Roulx, German illustrator Florian Bertmer treats them as a solid holy unit descending from the darkened sky.

Bertmer’s vision has the quartet swarm from heaven with the glint of armor, skull, and metal meeting the stars in Biblical celestial weight. Over his career, Bertmer has amassed a portfolio of work from the worlds of comics, cartoons, and pop culture yet his mark making is closer to classical humanist artists like  Albrecht Dürer and Gustav Doré than modern comic artists Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane, each illustration created with timeless gravitas.

In a former age Bertmer would be there along Fra Angelico illustrating the stories holding society together, showing rather than telling how the world works. In The Four Horsemen, the artist shows his true self, a 14th century artist working in the modern world.