- Date
- 1807
- Accession number
- 000.7
- Dimensions
- 10 1/8 x 8 1/4 in. (25.7 x 20.9 cm.)
- Medium
- watercolor and pen and black ink over traces of graphite on paper
- Description
- Raphael has joined Adam and Eve in their "Bow'r…/ With flow'rets deck't" (5:375, 379) to answer Adam's questions about creation and to deliver God's admonitions about sin (beginning at 5:451 and continuing into Book 8). Raphael's multifold wings (see 5:277-85) rise to form an ogee arch over his head. With his left hand he points above, probably in reference to the "Almighty" (5:469), and with his right to the "interdicted Tree" (7:46) in the middle distance. [1] The serpent twines around the tree and several beasts stand around it, much as Satan describes to Eve his first encounter with the tree and its "alluring fruit" (9:585-93). Thorny tendrils climb the trunk and thorns grow from the edges of some of its branches as indications of the dangers the tree poses to those who would eat its fig-like fruit. A very similar tree, with the serpent coiled around it, appears in Blake's 1807 watercolor, "The Fall of Man" (Victoria and Albert Museum; Butlin 1981, No. 641). The animals around the tree include a horse, a Renaissance symbol of lust, who looks back at the tree (with "Longing," as Satan says, 9:593?); an "elephant" (4:345), perhaps as a sign of concupiscence; a peacock, often associated with pride or vanity but also a traditional emblem of immortality; and a "lion" (4:343) who lies down with at least three sheep in this still peaceable kingdom. In the background on the left, "waters fall/ Down the slope hills" (4:260-61), to the right of which stands a "stag" (7:469) and another tiny beast which I cannot identify. Two large, long-necked birds soar left of the tree; another sits on the top-most branch on the left. This last motif recalls the description of Satan sitting "Like a Cormorant" on the Tree of Life (4:194-96).
Adam looks above, rather than directly at Raphael, suggesting that he is "attentive" (7:51) to the transcendental message rather than the angel's bodily appearance. Adam's gesture, left hand on breast, indicates the heartfelt impression Raphael's story is making. Eve leans toward her mate, seemingly more interested in Adam than the angel in accord with Milton's concepts of feminine subservience: "Hee for God only, shee for God in him" (4:299). Between the couple and Raphael stands the "Table" fringed with "grassy turf" and laden with "various fruits" in a leafy bowl, a goblet, and a large cup with a delicately twisted handle (5:390-91; see also 5:303-307). A few oak leaves can be seen behind the table legs. The base of the table and the "mossy seats" (5:392) are constructed of curving and interlaced vegetation reminiscent of Gothic tracery. [2] Branches of laurel leaves and berries frame the design on each side. Lilies and roses, growing on the same branches, complete the upper portions of the bower.
In a pencil sketch of the design, Adam and Eve sit on a couch-like bed of flowers with their forelegs drawn up under their thighs (British Museum; Butlin 1981, No. 534). Eve extends her right forearm toward the right with her hand raised, palm-outward. Raphael's wings are not raised but drop down his back. Many of the floral details, the table, all the animals, and the landscape are not pictured.
In the Butts/Boston version, Eve stands in the middle of the design, right foot striding forward. She separates Adam and Raphael much as her eating of the forbidden fruit will separate Adam from God. She is serving "at Table" (5:443-45), and thus the design pictures a slightly earlier scene than the Huntington illustration. She holds a cluster of purple grapes (see 5:307) in her right hand and the decorative cup in her left hand which, in the Huntington version, rests on the left side of the table. Her head leans towards Adam. Behind her are more fruit and two gracefully designed vessels on the table. The forbidden tree, smaller than in the Huntington design, is directly above Eve's head. It stands on a high hill on which are two horses and an ox. The serpent is pictured with two complete loops around the tree and his head rests in the crotch between the first limb on the left and the trunk. The waterfall is present, but there are many differences in the landscape. Two birds fly close to the ground in the middle-distance between Adam and Eve. Above them are two palms, an ostrich, an elephant, and a peacock. A female lion, or some other large cat, is just above Adam's head; a flock of sheep graze to the right of Raphael's right hand. A stag leaps above the flock and in front of a clump of trees. Right of Eve's left shoulder is a tree entwined with a grape vine. Two similarly decorated trees appear above Adam's right shoulder. Clusters of purple grapes also grace the framing vegetation on each side. There are two oak leave son the right like those behind the table legs. The laurel leaves look more palmlike, but their berries are still pictured. The arching vines have only lilies and bare but delicately curled tendrils. We see Adam's face in three-quarter view. His brow is knitted, his eyes are downcast, and he gestures in surprise or consternation with palms turned upward. Raphael is crowned and his wings do not extend as high as in the Huntington version. The bases of their chairs are even more elaborate and now include pointed Gothic arches. The foreground leaves and flowers are considerably smaller in relation to the size of the figures.
Notes
1. Raphael does not refer to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in his remarks to Adam in Book 5, but Eve mentions it in the description of her dream at the opening of the Book and Milton refers to it in a recollection of the earlier conversation.
2. Blake studied, and drew copies of, medieval sculpture and paintings in Westminster Abbey during his apprentice years in the 1770s. In his later writings on aesthetics, he praised the "Living Form" of Gothic Art (Blake 1982, 270).
- Credit
- The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
- Department
- European Art
