Abstract

This paper focuses on Amico Aspertini’s engraving Genesis Scene with Fall, Expulsion, Adam and Eve after the Fall, and Abel’s Sacrifice, a complex allegory that places a self-mirroring man in the middle of the events. The aim of the article is to highlight the general importance of the mirror motif in representations of the biblical story of Eden. On the one hand, the seduction of Eve was understood as a visual event and as an act of artful illusion. On the other hand, envy (invidia) or, alternatively, pride (superbia) was considered to be the reason for the original sin. And either personification had a mirror as its main attribute. Aspertini’s engraving takes up this understanding of the fall to show that his own art and more generally all figurative imitations thrive on the productive tension between diabolic allurement and divine vision.

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