Masaccio Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden

Right next to his tribute money, in fact you can see a piece of it right here, here's Peter getting the money from the fish, we will see the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden. And so we are again in Brancacci Chapel and here is the painting in question, the expulsion of Adam and Eve, a fresco high up on the wall. What you're seeing is a sharply slanted light from an outside source creating deep relief and a really powerful juxtaposition of light and dark or chiaroscuro as we've dealt with before, which serve to unify the piece. He's creating these almost sculptural figures. The use of highlight and shadow is so great that it looks like it's been carved in relief and that's what people mean when they're talking about mass and depth. Masaccio is really getting this sculptural quality in the fresco. And we see the cry of anguish from Eve, which is pushing the bounds of expression. That's a really difficult thing and human emotions are really difficult to depict. After all, assuming that your roommate, for example, or your best friend isn't in fact a three-year-old, most of us don't wear our emotions quite as boldly as young children. We don't pout out our lip when we're sad. We don't do those things. Instead, the emotions in adults tend to be much more subtle. So it's the shape of the eyes, it's a little tinge to the cheek, it's movement in the brow, and Masaccio's really trying to capture that here, especially in Eve's cry of anguish. But there's another interesting detail here. I mean, yes, there's Michael with the sword, there's Adam and Eve, and by the way, these figures are always depicted nude. It's part of the story, it's part of who they are, so the church has never really fought against depictions of Adam and Eve nude. But you'll notice a difference. Let's focus in here. You'll notice that Adam is covering his face, and Eve is covering her breasts and her genitals, and Adam doesn't really seem to care. Well, according to the church at the time, and this goes back to doctrine, and I should point out, these artists are as familiar as doctrine as many of the priests, bishops, and cardinals at the time. But women were inherently felt to be temptresses. Their evil is physical. In other words, women sin with their body. They sin by their body just existing, whereas men sin with their mind and their eyes. His genitals are not seen as sinful at the time, which is why he doesn't cover them. So what does this mean? This means that at the time, the church believes that women simply sin by existing, and men looking upon women, whether they're clothed or nude or whatever, will sin with their mind. They will get, let's say, the wrong idea. And that sin of a mind, sin of the mind, is equal to a physical sin, a quote-unquote real sin. So we see this strange juxtaposition. The woman is not seen as an intellectual, as a rational being. She's seen as a body, as a vessel, as something that gives birth to a little thing that we raise up and yell at a lot, and eventually it moves out. The man, on the other hand, is shown focusing on rationality, on thought. And you're saying, wow, that's incredibly sexist. But remember, we're dealing with something that happened in the 15th century in Italy. Very, very different ideas. Now, when we look at it overall, that's not the only thing going on. I I'm going to pull out my handy-dandy pen tool. Here we see the gate to the Garden of Eden. We see the light, the gold, indicating that Eden is that way, God is that way. It's as if man has moved away from God by being expelled from the Garden of Eden. We have the hills, which look particularly desolate, because we're told that life will be very difficult outside the Garden of Eden. And we see Michael pointing away the sword there, just to make sure that they don't turn and make a run for it. Now, you'll also notice one other thing. We've seen it before. These odd little lines that seem to run around some of the figures. We saw this in Giotto's Lamentation, for example. And that is actually known as a giornale. Basically, it is one day's work. This is a fresco. So, Masaccio only has about three to five, three to six hours to work on any individual section. Then the plaster dries. If he paints on dry plaster, the paint will not adhere and it will peel off. But if he paints on wet plaster, then you get this reaction. Carbon is pulled out of the air and basically it seals the painting and you cannot really destroy a fresco. It's very difficult. You'd have to destroy the plaster behind it. So, that's what's happening. In other words, Masaccio is painting this figure of Adam all at once. What you're seeing are lines in the sky that he can't avoid. Usually, these lines run, for example, along the edge of a leg or the edge of a landscape. And he would use multiple giornales to create this piece. So, that's all you're seeing. It's just one day's work versus the next. But keep in mind one interesting detail. Look at how much he is actually going to go ahead and paint in that single day. Let's assume it comes down here and it looks like it comes down here. So, that entire figure, three to six hours. That's fast. And add that to all the thoughts of composition, etc. that's going on.