Adam et Eve Chasses du Paradis

Masaccio original

I wanted to look at how religious iconography is portrayed in art here. I discovered this piece of work in a book from the Galerie des Beaux-Arts Bordeaux. The sketch was significant to me within the context of this symbolist painter. Since many of Redon’s works seemed influenced by mysticism and mythology, like ‘The Birth of Venus’, I was drawn to this piece to see how he conveyed such a prominent event in theology.

Understanding the sketch was of Masaccio’s ‘Expulsion from the Garden of Eden’, allowed me to see Redon’s perspective. Redon’s observation invites one to take the figures in isolation, as if distanced from God. This distancing was not apparent in Masaccio’s fresco; with the angel, a symbol of divinity leading Adam and Eve out. These figures were alone, just as scripture had intended. This sense of separation for me reflected Rousseau’s view of society being ‘born free’ yet still ‘in chains’, suggesting the eternal weight of sin as an immaterial weight as if shackled. Having read an article on Cerith Wyn Evans, I understood that art could be transformative. I believed this is what the sketch provided, as a new viewpoint. Since the sketch was so seemingly simple, Redon conveyed this sense of tabula rasa, as if God had created this blank slate for humanity through the expulsion of Adam and Eve.

I believe the movement and almost frenetic nature of this sketch depicted this burden of sin looming over these bodies. There is an attention to muscle definition with Adam, his upper-body seems tense as if a culmination of emotion repressed in the Garden of Eden, is now seeping into his body. We see the effect of God’s expulsion mentally with Adams head in his hands, however I believe the poignance of the sketch lies in the hauntingly gaunt face of Eve. Redon draws her figure more lightly than the heavy tonal outline of Adam’s bold structure. Something Masaccio’s painting doesn’t seem to convey. Perhaps because she is the temptress, unworthy of being acknowledged in this sketch, all we do see is the darkness around her eyes. Attention is paid to her ‘Venus Pudica’ posture, suggestive of the shame that God has condemned her with.

The sketch shows Eve walking in the distance, almost submissive to Adam, bearing the weight of her actions. She appears directionless, her face looking into the distance. Eve’s beauty, captured so characteristically in paintings such as ‘The Fall of Man’ by Rubens or ‘Adam and Eve’ by Baldung, seems absent in Redons sketch, she seems bald and broad. Suggesting that Masaccio (the original artist), was influenced by the descriptions of Adam and Eve in Genesis, and sought to use this as influence for his piece.

I believe this piece shows how scripture can inform artistic representation, and it is important to see how religious themes and opinion are carried throughout a certain period of time. As well as the importance of artistic observation (in this case Redon's sketch), in order to reiterate the importance of religious messages, and their developments throughout time.