The Fall of Man

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Teen Study Bible Gen. 3.6)

A story that has been told through the ages. A story that no one can truly agree on. Was it Eve who was the one who really made man fall? Or was it Adam who made man fall? To answer these questions, one must think for themselves. Different artists of different races, genders and religions find different meanings and present different interpretations. A male can have the emphasis placed on Eve. A woman can have the emphasis placed on Adam. But can one really know who the destruction of the fall of man be placed one? All one can do is interpret the story; through word, drawing, sculpture or painting.

In 1558, Hendrick Goltzius was born in the Lower Rhine region of Germany (NGA). Around the age of eighteen, he moved to Haarlem where he then meet Karel van Mander. (NGA). A few years before the Baroque Period (c. 1600-1780), Goltzius went to Italy to study Renaissance Art. Goltzius didn't start out as a painter. He was first a printmaker and draftsman; for which he was honored throughout Europe (NGA).

While growing up in Muhlbracht, at only the age of one, Goltzius fell into a fire (WGA). He was unable to open up his right hand completely after the fire. Even with a handicap, Goltzius was able to produce masterpieces. When Goltzius was eight years old, his father pulled him out of school because of his artistic ability (WGA). In 1575, Goltzius went to become an apprentice of Dirck Volkertsz Coornhert, an engraver and polemicist, a controversialist (OED) (WGA).

Goltzius did marry in 1579 to Margathetha Jansdr and became father to Jacob Matham (WGA). Matham followed Goltzius as a printmaker (WGA). Three years down the road, Goltzius published his own engravings instead of using a printing house (WGA).

Goltzius is more known for his Mannerist stylings over the Baroque stylings. Goltzius also mastered the stylings of people like Albrecht Dü rer and Lucas van Leyden (van Os 217). He took their techniques and created a new style of his own (van Os 217). Goltzius took a trip to Rome in 1591 to see the Italian art works. During his trip, he sketched works from Michelangelo, Raphael and Polidoro da Caravaggio (WGA).Not to confused Polidoro da Caravaggio with Michelangelo Merisi, also known as Caravaggio.

Goltzius' style started out in the Mannerist period and finished in the Baroque period. Mannerism was more for emotional intensity and ambiguity (WGA). Looking at other pieces by Goltzius, they have a Baroque look to them. Goltzius does capture the Mannerist style of emotions. He was able to capture it. In viewing one of his sketchings, he was able to do so with "Apollo."

At the beginning of the Baroque period, c. 1600, Goltzius started using a paint brush instead of a burin, a tool used for engraving (WGA). Using ideas from Peter Paul Rubens (NGA), he was able to "plump" up his human bodied figures as in "The Fall of Man."

Goltzius' "The Fall of Man" is a biblical adeption of the temptation of man. As the subject matter for the piece, we have Adam and Eve. There is a cat in the lower left hand corner, three goats to the right of Eve, and a serpent with a woman's head. Adam and Eve are lying in front of The Tree of Knowledge and eating the fruit that it bears. In the middle ground we have an elephant. The Garden of Eden and mountains which form the background.

In every piece of art, there are symbols; even in the smallest object on the page. "The Fall of Man" is filled with individual symbols and a symbolic whole. As a whole, the painting is a pictorial representation of the temptation of man as told in the book of Genesis. Individually, each object painted is the representation of a meaning to show the greater meaning.

The first figure that comes into the viewer's sight, going left to right, is a cat. Cats are feminine creatures; such in the way they walk with such grace. According to Nature and Its Symbols, cats are considered a wicked animal in the Christian religion. But on the other hand, it does or rather "had positive connotations" (223). Combining the idea of the feminine and the demonic meanings together, the emphasis of Eve's destruction of man.

Next, we have the figure of Adam, the first man created. "The Lord God formedthe man from the soil of the groundand breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,and the man became a living being" (Teen Study Bible Gen. 2.7). In Goltzius' "The Fall of Man," Adam is represented as a fair skinned man. Like Rubens' humans, Goltzius made Adam with a robust body type. There is a toned abdominal area, but one can see the structure that Adam poses. There is muscle but Goltzius also gave Adam hefty body. Adam is also adoring Eve. Notice that his eyes are in a loving fixation. Also, his hand is embracing her side, as to pull her closer to him.

Sun-Tzu said "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." This is exactly what Adam is doing with Eve. By placing his hand on her to embrace her, he is also bringing her in close to him. But because Eve is Adam's companion, he does not see her as his enemy so therefore trust her and accepts the fruit without any thought.

Right beside Adam is the figure of Eve. Eve was created from a rib of Adam; so that Adam may have a companion:

"So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man'" (Teen Study Bible Gen. 2.21).

Eve is also, in a male centered world, the creator of original sin. In the book of Genesis, it says, "To the woman he said, 'I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husbands, and he will rule over you'" (Teen Study Bible Gen. 3.16).

Goltzius has Eve holding a piece of fruit with a bite in it from her. She is offering Adam a taste. Like Adam, Goltzius has Eve looking plump, her back is quite fleshy. She does not look like an ideal person; meaning thin as a stick. Goltzius also has Eve with fair skin and blush red cheeks; the idea of what a woman looked liked in the seventeenth century. Also, Eve is pictured here with red hair. It does not say in the Bible Eve's hair color. But later in the Bible, it talks of a woman who had red hair. This can have one to start thinking about how the emphasis is placed on Eve with the destruction of man. And how woman are portrayed in life by some; being the weaker of the two sexes.

Right at the top of Eve's head is a serpent with the face of a woman. This is known as zoomorph. The serpent takes the face of a woman to place the emphasis of the fall of man caused by woman. The originator of the cause for the temptation was the serpent. Serpents, primarily snakes, are seen as evil and demonic presence. In the case of "The Fall of Man," the serpent is evil. It tempts Eve into eating from the Tree of Knowledge. In Judo-Christian art, snakes are a sign of evil and temptation. This is another reminder to people of the works of God.

When looking at "The Fall of Man," at first glance, one sees two goats. However, upon farther examination, there are actually three goats. The National Gallery of Art which host the painting, explains, "Goats, which are sometimes associated with Eve, signify a lack of chastity,...." The number of goats there are makes one think of another part in the Bible, the Holy Trinity or Holy Family.

Depending on one's beliefs, the Holy Family can be God, the Virgin Mary and Jesus. If that is so, that contradicts what is said about the lack of chastity. For Mary was a virgin when she had Jesus. However, since the goats are off to the side, Goltzius could have placed them to show the future. That there will be or was a woman who was a servant to God and never fell to temptation.

The resting area of Adam and Eve is the Tree of Knowledge. To Adam, God said "'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die'" (Teen Study Bible Gen. 2.16). According to the book Symbols and Allegories in Art, the Tree of Knowledge is "Like the cross, they symbolize death and resurrection - the sprouting of buds after the winter rest - and are vehicles of the spiritual ascent" (248). Adam and Eve did not die, but cast out from the Garden of Eden. Being cast out is like being dead. Since Adam and Eve were cast out, mankind isn't allowed to return to the Garden of Eden. Just like death, no one is allowed to return to the living.

In the distant, at Adam's left middle and index finger, there is a grey obscured shape that when focused, one can tell it is an elephant. According to Nature and Its Symbols, "It was said, in fact, that the elephant is not motivated by sexual desire, and that in order to breed, the female gathers the fruit of the mandrake and offers it to her companion to awaken his procreative instincts" (202). Another figure that places the emphasis on the female fault. Yet, if Adam and Eve were elephants, Eve would be doing what her instincts tell her to do. So in fact, just having an elephant does not place total fault onto Eve. It just places that all she was doing was natural and instinctual; as how mankind is to be tempted.

"The LORD God planted an orchard in the east in Eden..." (Gen. 2.8). This is where the whole portrait takes place. One can imagine the Garden of Eden being very green and luscious. Goltzius has a green garden, but not a very luscious garden. One can see in the background that the garden has vegetation. Also, one can see mountains in the distance.

In Symbols and Allegories in Art, mountains are sacred and where the deities are born (241). In the mountains is Adam's death bed (241). Later in the Bible, there is Moses giving God's Law in the mountains. Mountains are also a part of nature that is hard to over come but yet people over come them. In relation to "The Fall of Man," it is hard for a man to over come temptation. Yet, there are those people who over come temptation. For being in the background, Adam and Eve, mostly Eve, did not over come the temptation of the serpent. And the mountains are so far away for Adam and Eve to climb over. Even today, the mountains are so far away for man to climb. But once man can climb the mountains, we can see the Garden of Eden once more.

For me, this was the first time I had seen a painting of "The Fall of Man" with a serpent having a woman's head. Of all the masterpieces that I saw, this one was my favorite. Just the idea of having a woman's head on a serpent interested me. Something I have never seen before, and an idea I would have never thought about doing. Really, for me, there aren't words that I can say that can make one understand why I am fascinated with it.

Works Cited

Battistini, Matilde. Symbols and Allegories in Art. Trans. Stephen Sartarelli. Los Angeles: Getty, 2005. 241, 248

Impelluso, Lucia. Nature and Its Symbols. Trans. Stephen Sartarelli. Los Angeles: Getty, 2004. 202, 223.

National Gallery of Art, DC, 3 April 2007 http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=94849+0+none

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford English Dictionary Online. 6 May 2007.

Teen Study Bible: New International Version

Web Gallery of Art; Kren, Emil, and Daniel Marx. Web Gallery of Art. 4 Apr. 2007 http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/g/goltzius/biograph.html.. . Gen. Grand Rapids: Zondervan House, 1998.

Shanda Welte

FA 232

Dickson

1 April 2007