Adam and Eve Eat the Fruit

12th-13th century
Mosaic
Cathedral of the Assumption, Monreale, Sicily

Genesis 3:6. This is the most common way of picturing the sin in medieval art, with the naked Adam and Eve on either side of the tree (Adam usually on the left), fruit in the tree, and the serpent coiled around it. In this case, Eve is both taking the fruit and passing some to her husband. She does not have the pair of ribbons in her hair that we see in other panels in this sequence.

The inscription says mulier suggestione serpentis tulit de fructu et comedit deditque viro suo, "At the serpent's suggestion the woman took of the fruit and ate it and gave it to her husband."

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Photographed at the cathedral by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.