3-097-511 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Garden of Eden, c1620. Alternative title: The Earthly Paradise. At first glance it seems that what is important here is not the subject matter or the animals depicted, but the forest, which is executed with extreme meticulousness. Confronted with gigantic oaks with dense foliage, we are initially disoriented, since there is no single perspective to guide us. But we soon discover the various pairs of animals that inhabit this forest and that help us explore it carefully until we reach the clearing in the background, where we discover a tiny, naked human couple standing under a tree. The apples of the gigantic tree in the foreground, which occupies almost the entire space, allow us to identify the couple in the background as Adam and Eve in Paradise under the Tree of Life before falling into sin (Genesis). This identification is confirmed by the prominent presence of parrots, talking birds that in Christian symbolism personify Christ, born of an Immaculate Virgin, and whose death would redeem humanity from Original Sin.