This illustration of the Garden of Eden comes out of one of the most lavishly decorated Medieval manuscripts in history, the _Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry_ (c. 1416). Close examination reflects much more than the basic story from the Hebrew Bible’s story of the expulsion out of earthy paradise. For one, the world is imagined as flat, in spite of its spherical shape being well-known by this time in history. Furthermore, it reflects 15th-century ideals of beauty, where women had white skin, golden hair, and protruding bellies, and male bodies adhered to the Greco-Roman Classical style. Gothic architecture spaces out the image, so viewers can imagine a time flow in this single composition. Finally, it was typical to show the serpent as a hybrid of snake- and- beautiful woman: sexism at this time translated into women being seen as inherently cunning, devious, and seductive. This serpent (see close-up in second slide) looks enough like Eve to be her sister. Indeed, Eve is just as cunning and tempting towards Adam as the snake had been to her. Notice that both mortals are nude before their eviction, but after they strategically hold leaves over their genitalia.
Source(s): Folio 25v. Wikimedia Commons.
