Adam and Eve; Lucas CRANACH the Elder; 1553; oil on wood; Staatliches Museum, Berlin. Web Gallery of Art
Web Gallery of Art
The Fall
To understand
The temptation is undoubtedly the most famous biblical scene;
Eve, advised by the serpent, gives a fruit to Adam.
The man and the woman are naked. Both are beautiful and this is a good way to see the rules of beauty at the time when the scene was painted.
Adam often has curly hair and a dark skin, Eve is rather blond and white-skinned. This difference has nothing to do with any racial vision; it only means that a distinguished woman protects her beauty from the sun.
The serpent takes varied sizes and shapes, even becoming a big lizard; its head can be that of a more or less monstrous beast or, on the contrary, that of a pretty girl. The latter image refers to Eve as if the temptation were a dialogue with herself. The same idea is suggested by a serpent holding out a mirror to the woman.
Paradise is in the background; it is a luxuriant garden with “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” on the side. The nature of the fruit on the tree is not indicated in the Hebrew text. They are apples in the Greek tradition; sometimes a death’s head is to be found in the tree to signal the danger.
