Genesis and Commentaries

Adam and Eve, A Gallery of Renaissance Images

Without doubt, visual artists have responded as thoughtfully and dramatically to the story of Adam and Eve as have literary commentators. Along with the images included in other parts of this topic, the art offered here may give some idea of the kinds of pictoral images of Eden, Adam and Eve, the Fall, and the Judgment and Expulsion that helped shape the imaginations of Milton's contemporaries, and perhaps that of Milton himself. Indeed, Milton could have seen some of these pieces during his 1638–39 trip to Italy.