Eden

Ask about the painting / reservation

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.

Eden – Panel I: The Tree of Knowledge
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.

Eden – Panel II: Peacock
The left side panel represents the Peacock which along with the Phoenix, depicted in Panel III, is the bird which was often portrayed in scenes of the paradise. Both of the birds symbolise immortality and eternal life.
With accordance to the ancient notion, the meat of peacock does not rot, and his tail is a likeness of heaven.

Eden – Panel III: Phoenix
The right side panel represents the Phoenix which along with the Peacock, depicted in Panel II, is the bird which was often portrayed in scenes of the paradise. Both of the birds symbolise immortality and eternal life.
The legend about the phoenix comes from Egypt. It can be found in many of the ancient writers. With accordance to legend, the phoenix, imagined as a beautiful bird, is burned every five hundred years at the altar, and is subsequently reborn.

Eden – Panel IV: Ivy
Ivy is represented in the far left panel. As other evergreen plants it symbolises eternal life and paradise.

Eden – Panel V: Myrtle
Myrtle is represented in the far right panel. As other evergreen plants it symbolises eternal life and paradise.