3-098-983 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Paradise with the Four Elements, 1606. In the foreground are personifications of the Four Elements: Air, Fire, Water, and Earth, with their corresponding attributes. The presence of the Four Elements in depictions of Paradise was common, as in Christian symbolism they personified the first human couple. The allegories of Water and Earth are taken from engravings by Jacob Matham based on drawings by Hendrick Goltzius. In the middle ground and toward the background are depicted the three key moments of this biblical narrative: the Creation of Eve, Eve offering the apple to Adam, and the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. In the sky is the figure of God the Father surrounded by cherubs.