Further Media
With energetic brushstrokes, the German painter, graphic artist, and illustrator Josef Hegenbarth interpreted the Biblical Fall in a number of striking depictions. Two are shown here. The first work in soft shades of green and brown shows Eve bending down to Adam. Above her outstretched arm, the snake that tempted Eve to pick the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge is still skulking. In the second piece, the consequences of this decision make themselves known: the green has given way to a threatening red. Instead of the snake, a sinister figure swings from the tree, and the translucent pair of figures appears to be in the midst of self-dissolution. Humanity’s fate has been sealed: banned from paradise, Adam and Eve are damned to an arduous, finite existence on Earth. In many religions, the fall of man marks the beginning of human history.