Adam and Eve
Lucas Cranach the Elder
1526 © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London
Standing in the basement of the National Gallery, I am confronted with Adam and Eve standing before the Tree of Knowledge. Eve proffers a shiny red apple to Adam, her eyes seductive, a smirk playing on her lips. Adam’s hand rests on his head in a gesture of confusion, echoing the look he wears on his face. His eyes are fixed on the apple before him; Eve’s eyes are fixed on Adam. Where his face demonstrates a lack of understanding, hers is filled with knowing. This is a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder; his depiction of the Original Sin. Whilst there are two figures in this painting, the weight of sin has fallen disproportionately upon Eve, inviting scrutiny on the female body and mind.
From the beginning of the Middle Ages, women were perceived to be the manifestation of sin itself. Ancestral sin or Original Sin is an Augustine Christian doctrine relating to the Fall of Adam and Eve after they ate from the forbidden fruit. Even though according to Christian tradition, Adam is responsible for disobeying God, resulting in mankind’s condemnation to be born into sin, it is Eve’s character which comes under scrutiny. The Bibles states that:
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.” (Romans 5:12 – 21)
The serpent spoke to Eve and she, in turn, offered the fruit to Adam. As a result, more than two millennia later, women have been defined by traits including seduction, evil and cunning, responsible for carnal knowledge, as stated in the King James Bible, “Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die” (Eccles. 25:22). From a Biblical point of view, knowledge and sin are inextricably linked, and both are tied to women. Tangherlini explains in his paper “How Do You Know She’s a Witch”, that after the Reformation in Denmark, kloge folk or cunning folk came under the suspicion of the Catholic church. The church sought to eliminate these aspects of folk belief deeming them contradictory to its teachings.
“Among the beliefs they attempted to combat was the widespread belief in the ability of cunning folk to cure disease, find lost things, identify thieves and witches, and remove curses, all through the use of magic. […] Furthermore, in the eyes of the church, the cunning folk undermined the important awareness of sin among the general population since they essentially told their customers that their illness of misfortune was a result of trolddom (sorcery) and not a punishment from God for sin […] ecclesiastic authorities promoted that […] their cunning arts were derived from a relationship with the devil.”
Nowadays, we associate the word with shrewdness, deceit and trickery. However, the origin of the word “cunning” derives from the Old Norse “kunna” meaning “to know”, so even within language, “knowledge” is synonymous with ideas pertaining to sin.
Christianity spread quickly around Europe in the 4th Century and with it, the Bible which influenced the shape of the law. One of the most well-known examples of female persecution is the witch trials that took place in Europe between 1450 and 1750, resulting in approximately 100, 000 people—mostly women—being put to trial. An influential text that guided law-enforcers on identifying witches was Sprenger and Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum or Hammer of Witches, published in the 1400s. Prior to this, it was rare for anyone to be persecuted for being accused of being a witch. But this book became a guide on witch identification and punishment. Whilst both men and women could be accused, the book makes it clear that women were more susceptible to the evil temptations of witchcraft on account of the inferiority and weakness of their gender. According to King James, witchcraft was “high treason against God”. Famously obsessed with witches and holding deeply misogynistic views, when he published his version of the Bible, every reference to witches was female in gender. His obsession with witches and demons was further highlighted through his publication of Daemonologie, a dissertation on witchcraft, necromancy and the methods demons used to trouble men. In it he describes women: “As that sex is frailer than man is, so is it easier to be entrapped in these gross snares of the Devil, as was overwell proved to be true by the Serpent’s deceiving of Eve at the beginning which makes him all the more familiar with that sex since that time.”
This echoes the thoughts of Christian theologian Tertullian (c. 155/160-220 CE) who mentions that all women possess Eve’s “ignominy [...] of original sin and the odium of being the cause of the fall of the human race”. In his book The Apparel of Women, concerning female modesty and dress, he asks of women, “Do you not believe that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives on even in our times and so it is necessary that the guilt should live on, also.”
This connection between sin and knowledge has proved devastating for some women. Throughout history and even now, girls and women are at risk of extreme danger for pursuing education. The subjugation of women’s right to education has huge historical precedence. But even today, there are still many women who are denied an equal right to it. In Cambodia, for example, most women leave school before the age of puberty because there is nowhere safe for them to live. The Taliban regime is a prime example of knowledge being denied to women. In her essay on Original Sin, Francine Prose explains that,
“Under Taliban rule Afghan women cannot work, attend school, leave home without a male chaperone, or ride in a taxi. Minor infractions, such as showing an ankle, are punished by public whippings. More serious violations, such as adultery, are capital crimes for which the sentence is death by hanging or stoning.”
Malala Yousafzai was shot in the face for standing up for girls’ right to access and education, and she not only survived but continues to campaign. She has become the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala’s experiences and activism demonstrate how even today, a woman armed with knowledge has the potency to overcome extreme physical violence. This perhaps this speaks to the reason why the pursuit of knowledge is suppressed in woman around the world today; because of the power that it affords women. In this sense, it is easy to see how an educated woman becomes a object of fear to her oppressor since it is through knowledge that she gains agency over her thoughts and actions thereby developing the ability to challenge her oppressor.
Whilst we can see many instances of how the connection between female knowledge and the supernatural has lead women to be treated with fear and contempt, there are also instances when this connection is sought after and exploited. These women are revered for the same arcane knowledge that her sisters years later would come to be persecuted for. An example of this can be found in the women of the ancient world, the Greek oracles and Roman sibyls who were divinely selected to communicate the hidden wisdom of the gods. The most famous was the Pythia, priestess of the Temple of Apollo. John Collier’s 1891 painting ‘The Priestess of Delphi’ depicts Pythia cloaked in red, perched on a gold stool. She holds a laurel branch for Apollo in one hand and a bowl of water in the other. Fumes from an underground spring rise from a chasm in the ground inducing a trancelike state reflected in the otherworldly expression on her face.
Women haven’t been able to shake off the historically sinful associations that have plagued them throughout history. Female minds are policed in a way that male minds aren’t. Even today there are whole areas of learning, such a STEM, which are still male-dominated, a fact not helped by the large amounts of social conditioning that takes place to gender titles such a “doctor”, “executive” or “scientist” as male. How many quotes can be found online coupling the idea of “danger” with a “learned women”? That somehow, a woman who is able to think is something akin to sinful; something to be feared, therefore suppressed.
Stepping away from Cranach’s painting, my eyes are drawn to Tracey Emin’s scrawl on the wall: “It was just a kiss.” This is another work within an exhibition that encourages the viewer to think if their own definitions of sin. Far from the shame associated with the origin or carnal knowledge in the first painting, these glaring neon lights draw my eyes towards them. Nothing hidden. No shame. Just a kiss. Changes in what is defined as sin take place depending on time, culture and also at an individual level. Ultimately, the notion of sin is fluid; what is considered a sin one minute is perfectly acceptable the next.