Titian

Adam and Eve, c.1550, Oil on canvas, 240 x 186 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid; P000429, Copyright of the image Museo Nacional del Prado / Art Resource, NY

An Ominous Push-and-Pull

Commentary by Michael Glover

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Read by Richard Ayoade

Titian brings touches of drama and sensuality to this scene of the serpent’s gift of the fruit. The serpent itself has been anthropomorphized to such an extent that he looks like the sort of charming, puff-cheeked putto who might adorn the upper corner of an altarpiece. He is also actively involved in his own treachery in so far as he reaches down from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and hands Eve what is here shown as an apple. The scene is dark and ominous—see how clouds seem to be gathering as if expressive of divine displeasure. The tree itself is massive, and stands centrally, with the two figures of Adam and Eve organized with a pleasing degree of visual symmetry to left and to right of it.

Titian emphasizes the fleshly appeal of Adam and Eve. The seated Adam is handsome and ruggedly built, muscular, with a tousling of black hair. Eve stands and faces us. Her naked body is splashed with light from goodness knows where in order to enable the viewer to admire and revel in it all the more. Their genital coverings are substantial and lush, and remind us more generally of fecundity.

Adam himself plays a dramatic role. In a departure from the text—which has him happily accede to the fruit—he pushes back against Eve, as if trying to prevent her from doing the baleful deed; as if mindful of its universal consequences for humankind for evermore.

And just to the left of Eve’s right heel, there is a fox peeking out—a fox, an animal both unclean and—as in the fables of Aesop—wily.

See full exhibition for Genesis 3:1–13

Genesis 3:1–13

Revised Standard Version

3 Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10And he said, “I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.”

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