La cacciata dal Paradiso

La cacciata dal Paradiso

Adam and Eve banished from Paradise

The story of Adam and Eve being expelled by God from the Garden of Eden because of Eve's vulnerability to the temptation of the forbidden fruit is one of the opening stories of the Bible. It lays the foundation of roles of women in Christianity: weak, vulnerable, lack willpower and dependent on men. As Christianity was so deeply embedded in the worldview of people in the early modern period, it was not uncommon for people to pick up that view of women implicated in this biblical story. In the humanists’ discussion about the social expectations for women, Count Baldassare Castiglione in Il Libro del Cortegiano or The Book of The Courtier wrote that “To have understanding, being married, how to order her husband substance, her house and children, and to play the good housewife” was considered the chief qualities of a gentlewoman (Castiglione). Also, in Vives' writing of On the Instruction of Young Girls, it is considered that “the nature of the human body is inclined toward evil” and particularly for girls, unless they are consistently educated about moral rectitude, chastity and virtuous living, their natural wickedness and ignorance will lead them to only appreciate “sensual pleasure and banqueting” (Vives, 64). Though such humanistic concern about the education of women has started to evolve, it was still deeply grounded in the assumption that women is fundamentally different from men, in a way that is very similar to what the biblical story of Adam and Eve suggested: women need external help to assist them from living a moral life, and even when they are relatively competent, they are still helpers corresponding to men.

Masaccio

Masaccio. La Cacciata Dal Paradiso. 1427. https://www.wikiart.org/en/masaccio/adam-and-eve-banished-from-paradise.

1427

Changlan Wang

Public Domain