According to the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve are told not to eat from the tree of knowledge, but they are tempted by the serpent, They give in to temptation and are consequently exiled from The Garden of Eden. The right side of the painting, the expulsion, was mentioned on another page in this project, but the main focus of this paricular page will be the left side: The Temptation.
In the 1500’s, Michelangelo was commisioned by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Temptation and Expulsion of Adam and Eve was placed on the spine of the ceiling so that people who entered the church would be reminded that they are sinners that need to be redeemed by the church. The event that is portrayed on the left side of the fresco is what caused God to lose hope in humankind. Adam and Eve went against God’s orders, which proved that no matter how God thought He created them, humans were sinners by nature.…show more content… This is not an uncommon image to see, but some portrayals of the snake are gender neutral. A big difference between Michelangelo’s version compared to others, such as Masolino’s The Temptation, is that he points a lot of blame towards Adam instead of Eve. Eve can be seen lying on her side while twisting her body in order to reach one arm towards the serpent. Adam on the other hand is more aggressive in his motion. He is standing with his genitals right in Eve’s face, while actively reaching both arms toward the serpent. In Masolino’s version, more blame is pointed at Eve because he paints her with an arm intertwined with the tree in a position that makes her seem to be on the same side as the snake. In his portrayal of the event, Michelangelo places blame on both Adam and Eve by painting the two of them as giving into