The Apparition of Christ in the clouds
This illustration deals with just the first verse of the Revelation. It covers the entire page and has no frame or coloured ground. Hence it is different from the tenth-century Beatus in stemma II and similar, albeit only in this respect, to some stemma I manuscripts based in all likelihood on the original model, whose North-African prototype could date from the 5th century. The composition is also unlike that of the other Beatus manuscripts which show the Lord above standing in stemma II, but enthroned in stemma I and situated in the centre of the folio flanked by angels. In stemma II the clouds surround him but are at his feet in stemma I. Beneath him are people looking up and pointing at him, shown as a compact group in stemma I and divided symmetrically in stemma II. In the Gerona Beatus, these very colourful and decorative clouds begin at the top of the folio and extend downwards from right to left, coving the bodies of the angels leaving just their heads and wings visible. Christ is shown in the middle genuflecting – a position used more for figures in flight such as some of the angels shown full-length winging their way across the heavens in this manuscript. He addresses the crowds, as shown by the gesture of his left hand, who are represented by five beardless figures, who represent in turn the five tribes of the earth.
The ways in which this image differs from those in the two pictorial stemmata of the Beatus manuscripts may suggest that it stemmed from another source.
