Date: 1745-1829
Artist: Wenzel Peter
Location: Vatican Museum Room XVI, Rome
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Approximate dimensions of works: 336 x 247 cm
The Miracle:
Genesis 1 – 4
Wenzel Peter was born in Karlsbad, Bohemia in 1745 he moved to Australia and then lived out the rest of his life in Rome until his death in 1829. He specialized in animal realism and aimed at translating an “extraordinary naturalism” that appeared “photographed” in a manner of “stagnation or struggle” (2).
Wenzel Peter’s Adam and Eve in the Garden depicts God’s initial miracle, the world. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God is a deity beyond human understanding, who has designed a world of such beauty, technicality, wonder, and diversity for man to explore and question. The painting invites the viewer into the Paradise of a lush greenery, a calm meadow, and a forestry. The illustration includes over 200 unique animals across the world all grazing together within the stunning landscape.
The painting is a combination of two stories: one being the creation of the Earth and the other the fall of man. The mood of the illustration evokes a majestic and captivating experience, yet a melancholy and surreal atmosphere, which chokes the viewer in knowing that this Paradise will vanish with Adam’s bite into the forbidden fruit that Eve holds out to him.
The Creation story begins with God forming the “light,” which pierces the darkness that Peter illuminates his painting with to translate a divine realm. God creates a “vault between the waters to separate water from water.” This vault being the sky, which Peter paints as a clear blue with marshmallow clouds floating about the mountainscape. “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” God calls these landscape juxtapositions “land” and “sea.” The Garden’s landscape captures a variety of biomes being the meadow, the marshlands, the rainforest, and the Snowy Mountainscape. A winding river that divides the landmasses depicts the water and land separation. Cascading waterfalls enhance the background and illustrate the lands ability to fixate the powerful force of water. “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land.” The vegetation is abundant in the painting. Various wildflowers color the bountiful grass, oak trees; palm trees, banana trees, pine trees…etc enrich the Earth. “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” Peter transcends the creatures of the air with grace, diversity, and vibrancy that mesmerizes the viewer to partake in the freedom of the birds. The painting captures a greater abundance of birds than mammals, to convey a weightless and fantasy atmosphere. "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals.” Lions, zebras, tigers, horses, and deer surround the Garden in clumps of similarities and differences. A Camel and a donkey on the bottom left hand corner represent two creatures whose odd characteristics differ from the acceptable version of a “horse.” Peter translates the peace among the animals by placing mammals that would normally consume one another, grazing beside each other. The Tigers and her cubs are lying next to the Bulls calmly. “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over…all the wild animals.” Adam and Eve are painted in the center of the creation to emphasize their ruling and authority over the wildlife.
In the story of Adam and Eve, the serpent pictured above Eve tempts her into eating the forbidden fruit. He states that the fruit will not harm her, but rather her “eyes will be opened, and she will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Eve gives into the snakes prodding, picks the fruit, and takes a bite. Eve then hands the fruit to Adam and reveals to him that the fruit is not harmful, but helpful. He eats the fruit and as a result sin enters the world and they are banished from the garden. The painting expresses the moment where life is to change forever in sin, with Adam's seise of the fruit from Eve.
Wenzel uses a variety of animal symbols to translate his message of the Garden’s story. Beside Adam lies two dogs and behind Eve sits a peacock. Dogs represent “companionship, health, service, loyalty, protection, future, and prosperity.” The peacock embodies eternal life, immortality, holiness, and wholeness. The animals represent what humans are about to lose if Adam bites the apple. The fruit will cause them to become disloyal, lose God’s companionship, perfect health, the Garden’s protection, a future with God, and eternal prosperity in Paradise. They will no longer have immortality; flesh that is forever eternal, pure hearts and minds, and wholeness with the creator. The lambs lying near the humans foreshadow their use as clothing when Adam and Eve discover that they are naked; in addition to, Christ’s sacrifice that will re-unite man with God in Paradise. The male and female lion strutting near Adam and Eve parallel their pride in viewing themselves as equals with God. Birds symbolize “enlightenment, perspective, swiftness, vision, and prophetic knowledge” (3). The multitude of exotic birds nesting within the tree emphasizes the trees title as “the tree of knowledge” that holds the dangerous fruit of sin. On the right in the distance there is a peacock in flight. The fleeting bird is a representation of God’s new place with man, no longer personal but invisible and distant. The bird embodies the departing eternal paradise and immortality of man within the garden.
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