"But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'"
This artwork is inspired by Giuseppe Bezzuoli's painting 'Eve Tempted by the Snake' from 1855.
The original was, interestingly, lost after the artist's death, but has been later found and is now within the Uffizi gallery of Florence, one of the most important collections of classical art. It represents the Christian myth of Eve inside the garden of Eden, while the serpent whispers her to grasp the fruit of forbidden knowledge. Throughout history, this theme has always re-presented and re-affirmed itself in many artists' canvases.
My version has a few changes and re-interpretations. I wanted to also add a little modern twist and show Eve (a likely symbolic representation of positive Feminine energy - or 陰 Yin, unlike her opposite Lilith) with a lot more confidence and self-assurance. Has the serpent whispered the temptation to her, or has she whispered it to him? Keep in mind that, symbolically, the serpent is also Knowledge, much like the fruit itself. From a contemporary perspective, we seem to have abandoned the idea of the Christian God and ate the fruit ourselves. In the age of science and logic, some argue that our eyes are open and we see ourselves naked before the enormity and emptiness of Creation.
By abandoning the old idea of separate opposites, sin and blame, we can re-contextualise the scene in a way where it becomes an integral, yet nonetheless tragic, aspect of evolution itself. God, in some way, created us in the garden, to admire it and worship it. The knowledge/the serpent, allows us not merely to observe it, but to know it.
In preparation, perhaps, with the Taoist and Buddhist thought of returning to the Garden once more, to merely observe it again, inviting a detachment from the obsession of the mind and bringing us back to the Present, to Reality. To Eden.
More to come soon! Stay tuned for the launch of a little blog that will explore these ideas in more depth, as well as the philosophy behind my art remakes!