Eve
Circa 1120 - 1132
Autun Cathedral
From Genesis 3:1-6. With her left hand on the fruit, this is Eve just in the moment before the original sin – young, naked, and beautiful. The image stresses her agency: the serpent is not pictured; rather, Eve's right hand is pressed to her cheek, a traditional gesture indicating that one is thinking over something. (One sees St. Joseph making the same gesture in early Nativity images.) Meanwhile, the fig tree in the foreground points to the shame she will feel later, when she needs its leaves to cover her nakedness.
The fig tree can be identified by the shape of its leaves. Similarly, the fruit can be identified as an apple by its shape and the shape of the leaves around it.
Read more about images of Adam and Eve.
Sources: The sculpture is from this page at Wikimedia Commons. Fig leaves: this page. Apple: this page. Nativity image: from Merback.
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