The Garden of Eden

Three moments of Genesis collapse into one continuous walled garden: at left, the serpent — given a woman's head and torso — tempts Eve as Adam looks on; at center, both eat the fruit; at right, an angel drives the couple through the garden gate into a bare world outside. The garden's crenellated walls are thought to echo the silhouette of Mont-Saint-Michel, folding a real French pilgrimage site into humanity's first home. A fountain of eternal life anchors the composition's heart, its waters dividing into the four rivers of Paradise named in Genesis. Painted with the same jewel-toned precision the Limbourg brothers gave the Duke's own castles, this folio insists that Eden and Berry's France exist on the same continuous, gold-lit plane of creation.

Maker

The Limbourg Brothers (Herman, Paul & Jean de Limbourg); later folios completed by Jean Colombe

Date

c. 1412–1416

Medium of the original

Illuminated manuscript

Original held by

Musée Condé, Chantilly

Credit

Musée Condé, Chantilly

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00919