According to to the creation of myths of the Abrahamic religion, Adam and Eve where the first man and first woman ever to set foot on Earth. The story created by God was for people to believe that humans would live an idealic lifestyle, and were created to endure pure paradise to its most form. However, Adam and Eve both end up falling away from that state, and live under the realistic world of suffering and injustice for their unruly consequences.
In the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, there are two creational narratives with two distinct perspectives: In the first, both Adam and Eve are not references by name, yet instead God created humankind in ‘Gods image” and instructed both of them to become custodians of all of his creations. In this essence we don’t receive the same purposeful affiliation with that of normal humans, as they are controlled by someone, and stripping them of their own individualities. In the second narrative, God fashions Adam from dust to which he then places him in the Garden of Eden. God commands that he is allowed to eat and devour anything in the garden, everything but The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve however, is carved from one of Adam’s ribs, to be known as Adam’s companion. As a reader of this story, you immediately come to the assumption that Eve is created from Adam purely to be demised sexually and powerfully; he is her owner. Symbolically, this has changed the way the modern reader perceives love, as this creation started the roles in relationships we see today. During my re-creational processes, I would like to consider using essences from the original stories of sin and love to suppress the religious definitions and representations of its perceptions. Further along in the story, a serpent appears and tricks Eve into delving into the Tree of Knowledge, questioning her venerability. Like all females today, the stereotype to perceive women as the ‘weaker sex’ could possibly remise from this original story. Generously, Eve seen as the ‘care-giver’ offers fruit to Adam for the result of his own happiness. This also represents the stereotypical view as women as ‘housewives’, providing for males in return for their strength and well-being. God ends up killing the serpent, and prophetically tells the woman and the man what will be the consequences of their sin of disobeying God, he then banishes ‘the man’ from the Garden of Eden
Art Interpretations of Adam and Eve
JAN BRUEGHEL D. J.
Brueghel was born in 13 September 1601, in Antwerp and is a Flemish painter and draughtsman. Breughel’s depiction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden creates a myriad variety of forms and motifs with bright and intense colours, creating the ‘jewelj-like‘ effect so prized in his œuvre. This illustrates the sublimity within his work, and bringing out the idea of nature and natural creation, as religion is a big part of Breughel’ s depictions. The image of The Tree of Knowledge surrounded by nature and creatures suggests Breughel almost sets boundaries for the reader to understand, as there is narrative presented in the whole image.
PETER PAUL REUBENS
