Adam and Eve/Gideon and the Fleece

Adam and Eve and Gideon and the Fleece are two life-sized[1] Old Testament paintings by the Low Countries Dutch Renaissance painter Maarten (or Maerten) van Heemskerck. They are on display in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Strasbourg, France. Their inventory numbers are 1747b (Adam and Eve) and 1747a (Gideon).[2]

Adam and Eve
Gideon and the Fleece
  • Adam and Eve
  • Gideon and the Fleece
ArtistMaarten van Heemskerck
Year1550
Mediumoil painting on panel
MovementMannerism
Northern Renaissance
SubjectAdam and Eve
Gideon
Dimensions177.5 cm × 50 cm (69.9 in × 20 in)[1]
LocationMusée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg
Accession1948

The Strasbourg panels were bought from a private Parisian collection in 1948, their previous history is as yet unknown. They have however been identified as the obverse of two panels from 1550, now kept in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and thus as the wings of a triptych, of which the middle panel is lost. It is thought to have shown a Nativity of Jesus.[1]

The Gideon panel depicts the episode from the Book of Judges 6:36-40 in which Gideon asks God for two successive miracles regarding a fleece, first that it should be wet with dew in the morning while everything around is dry, and then that it should be dry in the morning while everything around is wet with dew.[2] Theologically, the fleece is meant to allude to the virginity of Mary.[1][2]

The Adam and Eve panel depicts Eve receiving the forbidden fruit from the Serpent and inviting Adam to share it with her.[1] It is thus both chronologically and theologically the starting point of the story being told in the now dismembered triptych: Original Sin – prefiguration of the Virgin Birth (Gideon's fleece) – Visitation – Nativity.[1][2]

Adam's muscular build and Gideon's dramatic posture are reminiscent of works by Michelangelo and his imitators that Heemskerck had seen in Rome.[1]

  • Inverted view...
  • ...of the panels.
  • The reverse panels (Rotterdam): The Visitation

References
  1. Montfort, Marie (February 2009). Collection du musée des Beaux-Arts – Peinture flamande et hollandaise XVème-XVIIIème siècle. Strasbourg: Musées de la ville de Strasbourg. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-2-35125-030-3.
  2. Jacquot, Dominique (2006). Le musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg. Cinq siècles de peinture. Strasbourg: Musées de Strasbourg. pp. 74–75. ISBN 2-901833-78-0.
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