Art in Tuscany | The Fall and Expulsion from Garden of Eden

The Fall and Expulsion from Garden of Eden

The doctrine of the fall of man is extrapolated from Christian exegesis of Genesis 3. According to the narrative, God creates Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, in His own image. God places them in the Garden of Eden and forbids them to eat fruit from the "tree of knowledge of good and evil" (the fruit of which is often symbolised in European art and literature as an apple). The serpent tempts Eve to eat fruit from the forbidden tree, which she shares with Adam and they immediately become ashamed of their nakedness. Subsequently, God banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, and places cherubim to guard the entrance, so that Adam and Eve will not eat from the "tree of life". In Christian theology and Islam, the fall of man, or the fall, was the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience. Though not named in the Bible, the doctrine of the fall comes from Genesis chapter 3. At first, Adam and Eve live with God in the Garden of Eden, but the serpent tempts them into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which God forbade. After doing so, they became ashamed of their nakedness and God expelled them from the Garden to prevent them from eating of the tree of life and becoming immortal. For many Christian denominations the doctrine of the fall is closely related to that of original sin; ie., they believe that the fall brought sin into the world corrupting the entire natural world, including human nature, causing all humans to be born into original sin, a state from which they cannot attain eternal life without the grace of God. The Eastern Orthodoxy accepts the concept of the fall but rejects the idea that the guilt of original sin is passed down through generations, based in part on the passage Ezekiel 18:20 that says a son is not guilty of the sins of his father. Calvinist Protestants believe that Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice for the elect, so they may be redeemed from their sin. Other religions, such as Judaism and Gnosticism, do not have a concept of "the fall" or "original sin" and have varying other interpretations of the Eden narrative. The term "prelapsarian" refers to the sin-free state of humanity prior to the fall.

Interpretations

Immortality According to the Genesis narrative, during the Antediluvian age, human longevity approached a millennium, such as the case of Adam who lived 930 years. Christian exegetes of Genesis 2:9, On the day that you eat of it, you will die, have applied the Day-year principle to explain how Adam died within a "day". Given these conditions, it has led some to believe that God may have intended for Adam and Eve to be immortal. Thus, to "die" has been interpreted as to become mortal.[1] Original sin Catholic exegesis of Genesis 3 claims that the fall of man was a primeval event, where the crime took place at the beginning of the history of man."[2] This first sin was "transmitted" by Adam and Eve to all of their descendants as original sin, causing humans to be "subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin." Baptism is considered to erase original sin, though the effects on human nature remain, and for this reason the Catholic Church baptizes even infants who have not committed any personal sin. Although the state of corruption, inherited by humans after the primeval event of Original Sin, is clearly called guilt or sin, it is understood as a sin acquired by the unity of all humans in Adam rather than a personal responsibility of humanity. Even children partake in the guilt or sin of Adam, but not in the responsibility of Original Sin, as sin is always a personal act.[3] The Eastern Orthodoxy rejects the idea that the guilt of original sin is passed down through generations. It bases its teaching in part on the passage Ezekiel 18:20 that says a son is not guilty of the sins of his father. The Church teaches that, in addition to their conscience and tendency to do good, men and women are born with a tendency to sin due to the fallen condition of the world. It follows Maximus the Confessor and others in characterising the change in human nature as the introduction of a "deliberative will" (θέλημα γνωμικόν) in opposition to the "natural will" (θέλημα φυσικόν) created by God which tends toward the good. Thus according to St Paul in his epistle to the Romans, non-Christians can still act according to their conscience. Nonetheless, as a consequence of Adam's sin, seen merely as the prototype (since human nature has been degraded) of all future sinners, each of whom, in repeating Adam’s sin, bears responsibility only for his own sins, humans became mortal. Adam's sin isn't comprehended only as disobedience to God's commandment, but as a change in man's hierarchy of values from theocentricism to anthropocentrism, driven by the object of his lust, outside of God, in this case the tree which was seen to be "good for food", and something "to be desired" (see also theosis, seeking union with God).[4][5] Other traditions
In Gnosticism, the snake is thanked for bringing knowledge to Adam and Eve, and thereby freeing them from the Demiurge's control. The Demiurge banished Adam and Eve, because man was now a threat. Ancient Greek mythology held that humanity was immortal during the Golden Age[citation needed]. When Prometheus gave the gift of fire to humans, helping them live through times of cold weather, the gods were angered. They gave Pandora a box and told her not to open it, knowing full well that her curiosity would get the better of her. When she opened the box, she released evil (death, sorrow, plague) into the world due to her curiosity. See Ages of Man for more. In classic Zoroastrianism, humanity is created to withstand the forces of decay and destruction through good thoughts, words and deeds. Failure to do so actively leads to misery for the individual and for his family. This is also the moral of many of the stories of the Shahnameh, the key text of Persian mythology. Painting Giovanni di Paolo		Giovanni di Paolo, The Annunciation and Expulsion from Paradise, circa 1435, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia, one of the most important Italian painters of the 15th-century Sienese school. He is chiefly notable for carrying the brilliantly colourful vision of Sienese 14th-century paintings on into the Renaissance. 'This masterpiece of Sienese painting presents a vision of Paradise reminiscent of that described by the great Florentine poet Dante in "The Divine Comedy." The universe is shown as a celestial globe, with the earth at the center surrounded by a series of concentric circles representing first the four elements, the known planets (including the sun, in accordance with medieval and Renaissance cosmology), and finally the constellations of the zodiac. Presiding over the scene of Creation is God the Father, bathed in a glowing celestial light as he is borne aloft by seraphim. Beside the "mappamondo" (map of the world) is the garden of Paradise, its four rivers issuing from the ground at the lower right. The garden's effulgent flora symbolize the pure and sinless state of man before the Fall. A diminutive Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden by a lithe angel whose unusual nakedness and human form may symbolize his deep compassion for the corrupted state of humankind after the fall from grace. This panel was originally at the far left of the predella from Giovanni di Paolo's Guelfi Altarpiece formerly in the Church of San Domenico in Siena (now Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence). It originally joined a representation of Paradise.'[6] Giovanni di Paolo \| The Annunciation and Expulsion from Paradise		The Creation and the Expulsion from the Paradise (detail), c. 1445, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Giovanni di Paolo \| The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise

Giovanni di Paolo, The Creation and the Expulsion from the Paradise, c. 1445, tempera and gold on wood, 46, 4 x 52,1 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Masaccio and Masolino di Panicale \| Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence The Brancacci Chapel is in the west transept of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. The original Gothic church, of which the Brancacci Chapel is one of the few remaining sections, was built for the Carmelites between 1268 and 1422. The Brancacci Chapel has one of the supreme masterpieces of renaissance painting: the fresco cycle of Scenes from the life of St. Peter, mostly painted in collaboration by Masaccio and Masolino between 1425 and 1427. The frescoes cycle- considered as a masterpieces from the early Renaissance - depicts the most important experiences of the life of St. Peter, headed on the opening jambs of the Chapel, by the “Original Sin” and “The Expulsion of Adam and Eve”, in order to connect the teachings of the Old Testament to the apostolic labour of St. Peter. The work was left unfinished by Masolino, who took off for Hungary, and by Masaccio, who decamped to Rome (where he died in 1428). Between 1435 and 1458, when the patron Felice Brancacci fell into political disgrace, the friars changed the dedication of the Brancacci Chapel to that of ‘La Madonna del Popolo’, moving the celebrated 13th-century Madonna and Child from the high altar into the chapel. It was perhaps on this occasion that part of Masaccio’s fresco with portraits of the Brancacci patrons was destroyed, a kind of damnatio memoriae.[8] After Masaccio's death, Masolino was too busy with other commissions from Cardinal Branda Castiglione ever to complete the murals before 1435, when the Brancacci, opponents of the Medici, were sent into an exile lasting forty years. Brockhaus suggested that many of the portraits in the Raising of the Prince of Antioch's Son were defaced by detractors of the Brancacci. Between c. 1481 and 1485, this scene was finished or repaired by Filippino Lippi, who also painted several of the missing scenes in the lower tier. Adam and Eve in the Earthly Paradise, and Original Sin by Masolino, and the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Earthly Paradise by Masaccio.

Masaccio, The Expulsion Of Adam and Eve from Eden, Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Firenze
Masaccio’s fresco depicting Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden by an angel is located in the Brancacci Chapel inside the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. The fresco is part of a larger cycle he painted for part of the chapel, while another painter, Masolino, worked on another fresco on the opposite wall of the chapel. The 12 frescoes were painted in two rows, six above and six below, that run around three walls of the chapel. The top row starts and ends at the beginning - in Eden - with one of the most famous events in the broad sweep of Judeo- Christian doctrine: on the right, Masolino depicts Adam and Eve at the moment just before the Temptation and the Fall (right). Balancing that view on the left side is Masaccio's interpretation of the expulsion from the Garden (pp. 94, 95). The painters have left us two distinctly different views of the hapless pair. In the "before" scene, Masolino is scrupulous about the details. The fig (not apple) tree is botanically correct. Its leaves and even the glistening seeds of its fruit are carefully depicted. And there is no need for Adam and Eve to cover themselves. Eden was created without a hint of evil. By contrast, meticulous draftsmanship was the last thing on Masaccio's mind. Working swiftly on his "after" view, with confident strokes he congealed the nightmare. In a vain attempt to hide, Eve covers herself. Adam is crushed; cradling his head in his hands, he is overcome with remorse. The rest of the top register of frescoes and all of the bottom are devoted to the life and acts of Saint Peter. Here we can see the Masolino-Masaccio collaboration, highlighting as it does now the turning point between Gothic and Renaissance art.[9]
Masaccio's Expulsion from the Garden of Eden is the first fresco on the upper part of the chapel, on the left wall, just at the left of the Tribute Money. It is famous for its vivid energy and unprecedented emotional realism. It depicts the expulsion from the garden of Adam and Eve, from the biblical Book of Genesis chapter 3, albeit with a few differences from the canonical account. It contrasts dramatically with Masolino's delicate and decorative image of Adam and Eve before the fall, painted on the opposite wall. The Expulsion Of Adam and Eve from Eden demonstrates the fascination of Renaissance artists with Greek mythological subjects. Note how the pose of Eve is apparently based on the so-called Venus Pudica pose that became the norm for the nude Aphrodite figures in the Late Classical period. The pictorial light source comes from the same direction that the actual light source in the chapel comes from (see photo). Masaccio has therefore planned out his painted figures to respond to the physical surroundings of the painting. Masaccio's painting is highly dramatic, volumetric, and expansive. The shapes of Masaccio's Adam and Eve are constructed not with line but with strongly differentiated areas of light and dark that give them a pronounced three-dimensional sense of relief. The expressive movements and gestures that Masaccio gives to Adam and Eve powerfully convey their anguish at being expelled from the Garden of Eden and adds psychological dimension to the impressive physical realism of these figures. Masaccio's harrowing scene of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden shows the expressive force and directness of his style. An angel drives the sinners into the harsh, barren world, where the light mercilessly exposes their guilt and despair.[7] Masaccio has also made strides in the structuring of the bodies of the figures here. They are quite accurate as they show Adam’s muscularity and the bending of his torso. Eve, who covers herself in her shame, does so in a way which resembles classical statues of the Venus Pudica, which suggests that Masaccio was looking at ancient works for inspiration before or during his work on this fresco. Masaccio's work exerted a strong influence on the course of later Florentine art and particularly on the work of Michelangelo. Differences from Genesis
The main points in this painting that deviate from the account as it appears in Genesis: Adam and Eve are shown in the nude. Although this increases the drama of the scene, it differs from Genesis 3:21 (KJV) which states, "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them." Only one Cherub angel is present. Genesis 3:24 states, "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, [...]" (-im being the original Hebrew plural ending of Cherub, doubled with an English plural in this version). The arch depicted at the garden entrance does not appear in the Biblical account. However, since artists often followed the studio tradition, painting from previous versions of a scene--and so learning from and absorbing other artists' expressive inventions into their own work--any responsible iconographic study would founder in the shallows of literal expectation if the painting were only judged by its adherence to these details and therefore seen to be successful only if it functioned as a simple illustration for the scene. Masaccio's evocation of Eve's howling, deeply felt pain in particular explores the meaning of the expulsion on a previously unexamined, more personal level. (Hartt)
	A hovering angel (so foreshortened that it appears ready to pounce) presides over the scene, driving Adam and Eve out into a world where toil and hardship and death will be their lot. Three centuries after the fresco was painted, Cosimo III de' Medici, in line with contemporary ideas of decorum, ordered that fig leaves be added to conceal the genitals of the figures. These were eventually removed in the 1980s when the painting was fully restored and cleaned.
Masolino da Panicale \| Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence

Masolino da Panicale, The Temptation, 1426-27, fresco, 208 x 88 cm, Cappella Brancacci, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
In this scene Masolino makes use of the most popular and traditional iconography of the period and the two figures, both in their gestures and in their expressions are courtly and elegant: a mood which has always been contrasted with the atmosphere in Masaccio's fresco on the opposite wall of the chapel, interpreted as a powerful manifesto of a new cultural and artistic vision, one of great spiritual harmony and technical ability. The foliage, which had been addded in the 17th century to cover the nude bodies, has been removed during the recent restoration.
Art in Tuscany \| Masolino da Panicale Masolino da Panicale \| Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
Michelangelo Buonarroti \| Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel \| The Fall and Expulsion from Garden of Eden
Masaccio provided a large inspiration to the more famous Renaissance painter Michelangelo, due to the fact that Michelangelo's teacher, Ghirlandaio, looked almost exclusively to him for inspiration for his religious scenes. Ghirlandaio also imitated various designs done by Masaccio. This influence is most visible in Michelangelo's "The Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel bay 4, The Temptation and the Expulsion from Garden of Eden, 1509-10, fresco, 280 x 570 cm, Cappella Sistina, Vatican
The Sistine Chapel is named after his commissioner, Sixtus IV della Rovere (1471-1484). The Sistine Chapel is a large and renowned chapel of the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in the Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere, who restored it between 1477 and 1480. After the architectural structure was completed in 1481, Sixtus IV summoned various Florentine painters to work in the chapel, including Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Cosimo Rosselli, Signorelli and Umbrian artists such as Perugino and Pinturicchio. The ceiling was commissioned by Pope Julius II and painted by Michelangelo between 1508 to 1512. The vault’s iconography is linked to the themes chosen for the side walls, representing humanity’s long wait for Christ, the prophecies foreseeing his coming and scenes from the Genesis. All the figures are set in a massive, architectural painted background, which is superimposed to the real vault. The rectangles in the middle have nine scenes from the Genesis, four of them large ones and five small ones. Three of these episodes describe the Creation, three the story of Adam, and three deal with Noah. The sixth panel is occupied by the “Original Sin” (left) and the “Expulsion from Paradise” (right). The two scenes are divided by the tree of good and evil, with the serpent coiled around its trunk and the Archangel Gabriel above it. The tree is slightly off-centre, marking the transition from lush countryside to an arid landscape, expressing how the human condition has changed. Michelangelo was intimidated by the scale of the commission, and made it known from the outset of Julius II's approach that he would prefer to decline. He felt he was more of a sculptor than a painter, and was suspicious that such a large-scale project was being offered to him by enemies as a set-up for an inevitable fall. For Michelangelo, the project was a distraction from the major marble sculpture that had preoccupied him for the previous few years.[23] The sources of Michelangelo's inspiration are not easily determined; both Joachite and Augustinian theologians were within the sphere of Julius influence. Nor is known the extent to which his own hand physically contributed to the actual physical painting of any of the particular images attributed to him.[24] Michelangelo painted a series of nine pictures showing God's Creation of the World, God's Relationship with Mankind, and Mankind's Fall from God's Grace. On the large pendentives he painted twelve Biblical and Classical men and women who prophesied that God would send Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind, and around the upper parts of the windows, the Ancestors of Christ. The portion of the Sistine ceiling dealing with Adam and Eve themselves begins with The Temptation and the Expulsion. This fresco is arguably the most unique and revolutionary fresco in the Sistine Chapel, rivalled only by the better known Creation of Adam.		Michelangelo, The Fall and Expulsion from Garden of Eden, (detail)

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] The Metropolitan Museum of Art \| The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise [7] (2011, 06). Introduction to Art. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 06, 2011, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Introduction-To-Art-720118.html [8] The chapel has had a checkered history, almost from the start. In 1434, the Brancacci family fell afoul of the Medici and were banished from the city. Later the chapel was rededicated to the Virgin Mary after the installation of a 13th century Madonna of the People, highly regarded for its healing powers. The name change served to disconnect the art from the specter of Rome, since the pope was always considered a spiritual descendant of Saint Peter. [Olmert, Michael. "The new look of the Brancacci Chapel discloses miracles." Smithsonian Feb. 1990: 94+.] [9] Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 10 May 2011 \| pdf www..montgomerycollege.edu H. Brockhaus, “Die Brancacci Kappelle in Florenz”, Mitt. Flor., iii (1919-29), 16082; and Berti, 1964, p. 93 [10] Graham-Dixon, Andrew (2008), Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p1 [11] Graham-Dixon, Andrew (2008), Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. xii [12] [13] Bibliography Kugel, James L. (1998). Traditions of the Bible : a guide to the Bible as it was at the start of the common era. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: Harvard University Press. Further reading McKenna, Terrence, True Hallucinations & the Archaic Revival: Tales and Speculations About the Mysteries of the Psychedelic Experience (Fine Communications/MJF Books) The Evolutionary Mind : Trialogues at the Edge of the Unthinkable (with Rupert Sheldrake and Ralph H. Abraham), Trialogue Press Food of the Gods: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution, Rider & Co Thompson, William Irwin, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, 1981, 2001
Art in Tuscany \| Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists \| Masaccio, painter of Florence Most of what we know of Masaccio's short life comes from Vasari (1511-1574), whose Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Architects, Painters and Sculptors appeared more than a century after Masaccio's death. Vasari was court painter to the Medici and in his writing took pains to make his masters - and the painters they favored - look good. His own hero was Michelangelo, and so when he tells us that the great one went out of his way to study Masaccio, he is making a large claim for Masaccio's own genius. [3] Eve Borsook, The Mural Painters of Tuscany, (second edition, Oxford, 1980), pp. 63-67 \| www.learn.columbia.edu www.museumsinflorence.com \| Brancacci_chapel
This page uses material from the Wikipedia articles Fall of man, Masaccio and Brancacci Chapel, published under the GNU Free Documentation License. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Fall.
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