Fall of Adam & Eve

Artist’s Summary: 1 Michelangelo’s bold clarity was in use with the Fall of Adam and Eve and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Note the composition's three pilasters, the fallen pair to the left, the pair expelled from Paradise to the right, and the anthropomorphized tree of knowledge with the striking female tempter in the center with her legs wrapping the tree of knowledge, join arms at the top to form the letter M in uncial script. The composition’s rhythm flows from left to right. Eve grasps at the fruit boldly, Adam acquisitively, for they wanted perfection. God became secondary. To the left, the intimate expression driven by pride and disobedience seems of as great as the misfortune of shame and guilt in the expulsion, on the right. They know that through the fall, God, who was near, has become more inaccessible and remote. No longer worthy of the garden, humanity’s truth will have to be learned in the desert of our destiny. Salient is the cherubim with the raised s...