13 August 2013

I don't think that's a fig leaf...

This image is from a book with biblical history made around 1455. It contains a staggering 180 coloured drawings from the Old Testament, this one showing God creating Adam. As you can see, the decorator did not want us to see all parts Adam was given: he covered his private parts with a leaf. It was appropriate to do so, since the text itself (the Bible) mentions how a fig leaf was used for this very purpose. What is so great about this picture, however, is that the leaf is still attached to a plant.
Fig leaves come from fig trees.  That plant looks more like a Venus flytrap...

Image cropped from the original at Erik Kwakkel.

11 comments:

  1. Venus Flytraps are only found natively in a 100-mile stretch of coastland centered around the North/South Carolina border. There's no way the artist would have known about them in 1455.

    Could be some sort of budded plant before it's gone to flower, but I don't think its a representation of a carnivorous flower.

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  2. Looks to me as though the leaf could have been added later, perhaps in response to a complaint. There seems to be just a little bit of Adam's equipment peeking out from behind the leaf on the right, close to where the leaf joins the stem. The leaf didn't quite manage to cover it all.

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    1. I think so too. The plant might have been part of the original image, but the stem and pod was definitely added later (it just so does -not- fit the rest of the plant). If the stem & pod had been there in the beginning, you wouldn't see or need the inking of Adam's crotch lines behind the pod.

      Lurker111

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  3. Venus fly trap? More like penis fly trap. (someone had to)

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  4. Actually, the artist is right. Adam and Eve did not use fig leaves to cover themselves until the fall (after they ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), when they realized they were naked. This is a picture of the creation of Adam, therefore I think the artist just wanted to cover up Adam with any old leaf for the sake of the viewers.

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    1. Sed creatura haec variata pictura Adae (Eva prius) non opus est herba sic Fig.

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  7. Well the Venus flytrap did get its name from perverted botanists for its resemblance to female genitalia. Red lobes, surrounded by hairs and sensitive to the touch... And the specific epithet of Dionaea muscipula means mousetrap, not flytrap.
    http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2880.html

    Botanists are well known for things like this. The butterfly pea genus is Clitoria for its genital resemblance, The mushroom order Phallales, family Phallaceae and genus Phallus for the stinkhorns. Lady slipper orchids have a flower whose shape is referred to as being vaginate. The examples go on.

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  8. The plant looks a bit like plantain to me (Plantago sp., maybe P. major).

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