The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve

by Stephen Greenblatt

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  Illustration Credits

  Frontispiece: Hans Baldung Grien, The Fall of Humankind (Lapsus Humani Generis), 1511, print, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

  Inserts

  1. Adam and Eve, third century CE, fresco, Catacombe SS. Pietro and Marcellino, Rome, photo © Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, Vatican.

  2. Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (detail), c. 359 CE, marble, Museo Storico del Tesoro della Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican (Scala/Art Resource, NY).

  3. Adam in the Garden of Eden, fifth century, ivory, Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello.

  4. Bernward Doors, c. 1015, bronze, courtesy of the Dom-Museum Hildesheim.

  5. The Creation of Eve (detail from the Bernward Doors), photo by Frank Tomio, courtesy of the Dom-Museum Hildesheim.

  6. The Judgment of Adam and Eve by God (detail from the Bernward Doors), photo by Frank Tomio, courtesy of the Dom-Museum Hildesheim.

  7. St. Albans Psalter, HS St. God. 1, p. 18, twelfth century, property of the Basilica of St. Godehard, Hildesheim © Dombibliothek Hildesheim.

  8. Gislebertus, The Temptation of Eve, c. 1130, stone, Musée Rolin, Autun, © Ville d’Autun, Musée Rolin.

  9. Crucifix, c. 1200, wood, Collegiata di San Candido, photo courtesy of the Parrocchia di San Michele Arcangelo in San Candido.

  10. Vat. Lat. 5697 fol. 16r (detail of God creating Eve from Adam’s rib), fifteenth century © 2017 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

  11. Mors per Evam, vita per Mariam, c. 1420, University Library of Wrocław, Manuscript M. 1006, fol. 3v.

  12. Giovanni di Paolo, The Mystery of Redemption from Paradiso Canto VII, c. 1450, © The British Library Board, Yates Thompson 36, f. 141.

  13. Masaccio, The Expulsion (from a photograph taken c. 1980, before its restoration), 1424–1428, fresco, Cappella Brancacci, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence (Alinari Archives, Florence).

  14. Masaccio, The Expulsion, 1424–1428, fresco, Cappella Brancacci, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence (Raffaello Bencini/Alinari Archives, Florence).

  15. (Left) Jan and Hubert van Eyck, Adam and the Offerings of Cain and Abel (interior of the left wing of the Ghent Altarpiece), 1432, oil on panel, Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent (Maeyaert/Iberfoto/Alinari Archives). (Right) Jan and Hubert van Eyck, Eve and Murder of Abel by Cain (interior of right wing of the Ghent Altarpiece), 1432, oil on panel, Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent (Maeyaert/Iberfoto/Alinari Archives).

  16. Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, engraving, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Art Museum Council Fund, M.66.33, © Museum Associates/LACMA.

  17. Albrecht Dürer, sheet of studies for the hand and arm of Adam and for rocks and bushes for the engraving of Adam and Eve, 1504, pen and brown and black ink, British Museum, London, SL, 5218.181, © The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.

  18. Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait in the Nude, 1505, pen and brush, black ink with white lead on green prepared paper, Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

  19. Hans Baldung Grien, Eve, the Serpent, and Death, c. 1510–1515, oil on wood, likely linden, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, photo © National Gallery of Canada.

  20. Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Delights (detail), 1504, oil on oak panel, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, P02823, © Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado.

  21. Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, 1508–1512, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, photo © Vatican Museums. All rights reserved.

  22. Jan Gossart, Adam and Eve, c. 1520, pen and ink, brush and ink, and white gouache, on blue-gray prepared paper, © Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees.

  23. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Adam and Eve, 1526, oil on panel, The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London.

  24. Titian, Adam and Eve, c. 1550, oil on canvas, Museo Nacionsl del Prado, Madrid, P00429, © Museo Nacional del Prado.

  25. Caravaggio, Madonna dei Palafrenieri (detail), 1605–1606, oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome (Scala/Art Resource, NY).

  26. Rembrandt van Rijn, Adam and Eve, 1638, etching, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

  27. Ercole Lelli, Anatomical waxes of Adam and Eve, eighteenth century, photo provided by the Museo di Palazzo Poggi, Sistema Museale di Ateneo—Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna.

  28. Max Beckmann, Adam and Eve, 1917, oil on canvas, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, © bpk Bildagentur/Nationalgalerie, SMB/Jörg P. Anders/Art Resource, NY.

  29. ‘Lucy’ (australopithecus afarensis) and her mate, reconstruction by John Holmes under the direction of Ian Tattersall, photo by J. Beckett and C. Chesek, © American Museum of Natural History.

  Index

  Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.

  Page numbers beginning with 325 refer to endnotes.

  Abel, 68, 145

  Abraham, 24, 35, 38

  Abram, 23, 326

  Abravanel, Judah, 309

  Acosta, Father José de, Historia natural y moral de las Indias, 235, 237

  Adam:

  after the Fall, 7, 138, 148, 149–50, 225–27, 228–29, 307–8

  allegorical story of, 76, 79, 205

  animals named by, 11, 112–13, 142, 214, 224, 243–44, 253, 265, 274, 304

  Apocalypse of, 66

  breath of life in, 20, 44, 57, 58, 75

  companionship for, 11, 60–61, 179, 180, 184, 214–16, 222, 224, 306

  creation of, 16, 66, 125, 243, 277, 327–28

  and death, 68, 72, 106, 144, 227–28, 308, 335, 336, 340

  disobedience of, 6, 99, 132

  and Dürer’s Fall of Man, 152–54, 156–59, 161

  eating forbidden fruit, 2, 63, 73, 100, 112, 113, 135, 254, 305, 309–10, 346

  Eve created from rib of, 16, 60–61, 75, 113, 128, 130, 132, 136, 143, 148, 216, 253, 333

  formed from dust/clay, 16, 20, 45, 56, 57, 74, 112, 134, 253, 310

  free will of, 133, 185, 193, 224

  and guilt, 149–50, 225

  height of, 276

  as hermaphrodite, 15, 62

  as holotype,
11–12, 79

  images in artworks, 144, 151–52, 153–55, 156–57, 159, 207; see also art

  innocence of, 143, 191, 212, 223, 293

  Jesus as New Adam, 6, 74, 75, 100, 128, 298

  and knowledge, 66

  and love, 216–21, 224–25

  myths and legends about, 254–55, 262

  navel of, 277

  as original prophet, 6, 7

  penitence of, 69

  and perfection, 133, 154, 156, 157, 280

  Pre-Adamites, 241–42, 244–46

  as progenitor, 12, 242, 253

  responsibility of, 121, 126, 133, 136, 335, 346

  sins of, 99, 100, 102, 106, 133, 150, 193, 225, 254, 335

  see also Adam and Eve; Adam and Eve story

  Adam and Eve:

  after the Fall, 68–69, 225–27, 229–30

  as ascetics, 124–25, 143

  and clothing, 62, 63, 79, 151, 233, 348

  descendants of, 3, 105, 237, 249

  disobedience of, 8, 260, 342

  earthly bliss of, 217

  equality of, 121, 146, 218–20, 224–25

  images in artworks, 9, 128, 137–38, 139–62, 256, 296, 348; see also art

  innocence of, 119, 143, 144, 153–54, 174, 236, 293, 304–5

  knowledge of good and evil, 63

  and marriage, 177, 179–80, 213–14, 217–18, 221–27, 229, 254

  nakedness of, 62, 141–44, 146–47, 149–51, 154, 156–57, 277, 284, 293

  and Paradise Lost, see Paradise Lost

  and procreation, 61, 110, 115–16, 118

  as real people, 9, 206, 213, 230, 238, 247, 250–51, 266, 274, 281

  redemption of, 151

  relationship of, 60–63

  and revolutionaries, 194

  and sexual pleasure, 217–19, 225, 254

  shame of, 63, 114, 141–43, 146–50, 154, 225

  and sin, 97, 104, 105, 108, 109–10, 114, 151, 243, 250, 260

  story of, see Adam and Eve story

  as symbols, 79

  temptation of, 7

  see also Adam; Eve

  Adam and Eve story:

  as allegory, 79–80, 91, 110–11, 205, 252, 284, 337

  ascetic views of, 124–25, 143

  Augustine’s obsessive engagement with, 96–97, 110–19, 267