Eden – Panel I: The Tree of Knowledge

Frage zum Gemälde / Reservation

The central panel of the polyptych contains the image of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After the tasting of the fruit from this tree, the first people were banished from the paradise.



Polyptych containing of five panels: central – 60 x 80 cm, two inner side panels – each 40 x 50 cm, and two outer panels – each 24 x 30 cm, Acryl on canvas
Size of the work within the frame: 278 x 110 cm

The painting represents the idyllic image of the Garden of Eden. The subject matter is universal, present in the tradition of three great monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

All of the five panels are maintained in the calming and harmonious colour palette of greens and blues with small hints of lilac and gold. The whole image seems to evoke the ideal place perfectly; place for which most of us would long.

Someone could wonder that the whole scene lacks the most important inhabitants of the paradise. Where are the people? This deliberate omission places the viewers as Adam and Eve. Both the scale of the work, as well as its composition, allow the watchers to abandon his or her role as simply the spectator and somehow oblige them to become part of the picture. Here they stand, in the centre, just in the front of the tree of knowledge. In front of their very eyes there is the fruit, which they are not allowed to touch.