Illustrated manuscript of Genesis : Adam and Eve at the Tree of Knowledge

Maker William Blake (British, 1757 - 1827)

Additional Title(s)

Genesis manuscript [no. 8 of 11 leaves]

Collections

William Blake Collection

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Dateca. 1826-1827

Mediumpencil on wove paper

Dimensionsimage including text: 11 11/16 x 7 15/16 in. (29.7 x 20.2 cm.) headpiece: 4 5/16 x 7 13/16 in. (11 x 19.9 cm.) sheet: 15 x 10 7/8 in. (38.1 x 27.7 cm.)

DescriptionText of Genesis 3:1-14. The design at the top, surrounded by framing lines, directly illustrates Blake's chapter heading and the text of Genesis below it. Adam kneels on the far left, his arms apparently behind his back. To the right, the fallen Eve kneels with her left hand over her breasts and her right hand covering her vulva in a version of the Venus Pudica posture. [1] A few dark lines on the ground between the pair may be a partly-eaten fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Its thick trunk dominates the right half of the design, with a few swirling lines suggesting foliage and fruit above. At its base is the serpent, already cursed by God and going on his "belly" (3:14). His large head is extended toward Eve. Blake lightly sketched all the major motifs-Adam, Eve, the tree, and the serpent-farther to the left, then redrew them in darker pencil. Notes 1. Blake may have learned of this pose, with the hand positions reversed, from the Medici Venus, a copy of which he engraved in 1815 for the third plate of "Sculpture" in Abraham Rees, The Cyclopaedia (plates volume 4, dated 1820). Eve is pictured with the same hand positions in Masaccio's "Expulsion" fresco, wich Blake may have known through engraved copies.

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

Not on view

Object number000.39

Terms