![]() Between the couple and Raphael stands the "Table" fringed with "grassy turf" and laden with "various fruits" in a leafy bowl, a goblet, and a large cup with a delicately twisted handle (5:390-91 see also 5:303-307). Eve leans toward her mate, seemingly more interested in Adam than the angel in accord with Milton's concepts of feminine subservience: "Hee for God only, shee for God in him" (4:299). Adam's gesture, left hand on breast, indicates the heartfelt impression Raphael's story is making. ![]() This last motif recalls the description of Satan sitting "Like a Cormorant" on the Tree of Life (4:194-96).Īdam looks above, rather than directly at Raphael, suggesting that he is "attentive" (7:51) to the transcendental message rather than the angel's bodily appearance. Two large, long-necked birds soar left of the tree another sits on the top-most branch on the left. In the background on the left, "waters fall/ Down the slope hills" (4:260-61), to the right of which stands a "stag" (7:469) and another tiny beast which I cannot identify. The animals around the tree include a horse, a Renaissance symbol of lust, who looks back at the tree (with "Longing," as Satan says, 9:593?) an "elephant" (4:345), perhaps as a sign of concupiscence a peacock, often associated with pride or vanity but also a traditional emblem of immortality and a "lion" (4:343) who lies down with at least three sheep in this still peaceable kingdom. A very similar tree, with the serpent coiled around it, appears in Blake's 1807 watercolor, "The Fall of Man" (Victoria and Albert Museum Butlin 1981, No. ![]() Thorny tendrils climb the trunk and thorns grow from the edges of some of its branches as indications of the dangers the tree poses to those who would eat its fig-like fruit. The serpent twines around the tree and several beasts stand around it, much as Satan describes to Eve his first encounter with the tree and its "alluring fruit" (9:585-93). With his left hand he points above, probably in reference to the "Almighty" (5:469), and with his right to the "interdicted Tree" (7:46) in the middle distance. Raphael's multifold wings (see 5:277-85) rise to form an ogee arch over his head. Description Raphael has joined Adam and Eve in their "Bow'r…/ With flow'rets deck't" (5:375, 379) to answer Adam's questions about creation and to deliver God's admonitions about sin (beginning at 5:451 and continuing into Book 8).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |