The Re-presentation of Eve

The image above is of Byzantine style, which is evident through the iconographic features of that period. For example, symbolic forms and signs are used rather than exactly similar reproductions of subject matter. It has the autonomous and surprising Christian imagery, uninhibited by Renaissance artisan constraints. After the totalitarianism of the Roman empire, society and culture looked elsewhere, Ancient Greece offered an interesting influence to fictive imaginations of the body that were not primarily concerned with beauty.

The unknown and alien complimented the move from Paganism to Christianity. A rather sinister black tree that morphs partly into a snake immediately indicates the exile of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. It is interesting that only Eve is depicted here. This could be exposing her as the sole perpetrator of God’s punishment of human kind. However, Eve does not seem to be rendered aggressively or experience any discomfort. She embodies a quality of beauty; her shading of white compliments the Christian association with goodness. Her demeanour is calm, her posture is open, and the wing like adornment attached to her side is decorated with similar stars as the ones featured above, indicating an angel like character. The twinkling stars in particular serve to capture the visionary. This signifies the author’s alternative interpretation of the temptation of Adam by Eve.

‘The Fall’ was created by a Byzantine mystic named Hildegard op Bingen. Despite Catholicism’s categorical rejection of women’s role in the church, Hildegard stood as an exception. She was permitted to preach and write about female sexuality, health and morality. An exceptional number of eight volumes of her authorship were accepted by the church. Having been educated by an anchorite from the age of eight, Hildegard was a known mystic, which formed as a threat to ecclesiastic hierarchy. With regards to Hildegard, this was quite possibly a way of penetrating the patriarchal and patronised society. The utilisation of the mode of resistance known as the hysterics, could communicate knowledge and operate influence, granted, based on the supernatural rather than the educated and accepted means of the church reserved for its male members. However, mysticism worked for Hildegard to gain spiritual and intellectual commendation, and therefore power.

Hildegard presents Eve as the mediator of the transfer of humanity beyond the Garden of Eden. The traditional story is often told in an implicitly misogynistic tone. For example, Eve is an unseen creation, and specifically for Adam therefore, establishing a hierarchy of roles from the outset. Eve is responsible for the fall of human kind, and is only redeemed by the Virgin Mary- the new Eve. Hildegard’s rendition expresses a significantly different viewpoint. Eve is instead responsible for humanity’s development and growth. She is curious, and wants to learn about her world and the things in it. Hildegard’s representation of Eve is a positive icon of the transition of childhood into adulthood and indicates god’s gift of free will.

The image inspires a sense of astonishment at medieval Christian imagery. Instead of viewing it as a primitive and undeveloped era of creativity and development, ‘The Fall’ exemplifies medieval sophistication of iconoclasm and inventiveness. Hildegard, in particular provides a much-needed alternative stance in the representation of ostensible universals concerning gender fundamentals and relationships.