Duvet Studying the Apocalypse

Jean Duvet portrayed himself as John the Evangelist in this frontispiece to the Apocalypse. He holds an engraver’s burin and has inscribed his name on the arched, copperplate-like tablet at his left: “Jean Duvet, goldsmith of Langres, aged seventy, has completed these histories in 1555.” Duvet’s attribute is not the eagle, but rather a menacing swan. Swimming toward him with an arrow in his beak, the bird and the ship of the three Fates above it bear ill tidings: “Death is upon me and my hands tremble, my sight fails, yet the spirit remains victorious and I have completed my great work.”