Sexual Fables
This article accompanies the fable
The Age of Consent

The Fall of Man in famous paintings

It’s called The Fall of Man but it's the snake’s fault and it’s Eve’s fault: “Her rash hand in evil hour…” Has there ever been a more popular subject in art history? The four paintings shown on the main page are by Michelangelo from the Sistine Chapel ceiling (between 1508-1512); Lucas Cranach the Elder, who was associated with Protestant reformers like Martin Luther (1526); Rubens, a Catholic, when he was only 20 (in 1597) and William Blake (c. 1808). Shown below is the Michelangelo only.

Michelangelo and the Fall of Man

It is Eve's role that continues to fascinate anyone interested in art history. Consider these three images of Eve, the left hand by van Eyck (between 1426 and 1432), the central by Albrecht Dürer (in 1507) and the right hand by Lucas Cranach the Elder (in 1528).

van Eyck Eve Albrecht Durer EveLucas Cranach Eve

Then compare them to this explicitly erotic vision by Hans Baldung Grien from 1511, where Adam doesn't seem that interested in the apple.

Baldung-Adam-Eve

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