Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, surrounded by demons brandishing gardening tools as weapons, cover their nudity with fig leaves. Late Gothic fresco in ribbed vault of cloister, Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta at Bressanone-Brixen, South Tyrol, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy.
Bressanone-Brixen, South Tyrol, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy: shamed by their nudity, Adam and Eve cover themselves with fig leaves as they hold the forbidden fruit plucked from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. The Devil, a coiled serpent with a human face, is wrapped around the tree trunk, while in its branches, horrific multicoloured demons with horns, trumpet ears and sabre teeth, representing Christianity’s Seven Deadly Sins, brandish weapons or gardening tools such as rakes and pitchforks. This graphic vision of the Garden of Eden moments after the Loss of Innocence is amongst late-1300s and 1400s frescoes on the walls and ribbed ceiling vaults of the medieval cloister by the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption). The earliest Late Gothic frescoes here were painted around 1390 by a group of artists active throughout this mainly German-speaking region. The 15th century frescoes are believed to be either solo work by Lienhart Scherhauff (also known as Leonhard von Brixen or Leonardo da Bressanone), or are by his studio, which produced fresco cycles for churches throughout South and East Tyrol. Lienhart and his artists, with their delicate style, transformed the often harsh and crude nature of earlier Tyrolean Christian art, most obviously in the softer and more lifelike faces of Biblical characters. Some works here also feature proof of Leonhard’s own hand: the scorpion signature emblem he used that prompted his title of Maestro dello Scorpione (Master of the Scorpion). The spa city of Bressanone-Brixen was founded in 901 AD, becoming the seat of powerful Prince Bishops whose influence forged links between southern Germany and northern Italy. South Tyrol became part of Italy after the 1914-18 First World War.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Bressanone-Brixen, South Tyrol, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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