This blog is intended to question the significance of the “Adam and Eve” plate in Theodore de Bry’s Part I (Virginia) of his Grand Voyages.
In Par I and again in Part III, Theodore de Bry placed an engraving of Adam and Eve ahead of the engravings of the Algonquians of eastern North Carolina. Why is it first? Why is it even included in a book about the New World? Adam and Eve inhabited the “Old World”. Was de Bry hoping to extend the concept of singularity of the God de Bry himself embraced?
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is the subject of a full-page plate showing Eve touching, but not yet grasping, an apple on the tree of knowledge. Adam is reaching up with both arms, one touching the tree, the other the top of his head (which is about to explode). Both Adam and Eve have long limbs, contorted bodies and small heads. Is that characteristic of John White’s images? Was White the artist?
The serpent, Satan, has the head and upper body of a woman with arms outstretched and lower body coiled around the tree. Near their feet are a rat, a rabbit and two lions, all living in harmony (lions were vegetarians at that time). Some plates show the serpent’s tail with longitudinal shading. Others show the serpent’s tail is cross-hatched. Is that significant or trivial?
The de Bry firm filled-in the background on White’s and le Moyne’s drawings and watercolors when preparing the final artwork for the engraver. The Adam and Eve engraving includes two background figures reminiscent of the Algonquian plates. One is laboring in the garden and the other is occupied with a baby. I thought Adam and Eve were the only two people on earth? Would the artist make that mistake? Would de Bry? Or, are those added figures part of an allegory to show what happens next; that is, what happens after Adam and Eve have the experience with the apple? God had warned them not to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil. In the simplistic version of the answer, woman is condemned to have pain at childbirth and man is condemned to a life of hard labor. That is my interpretation; theologians might offer other opinions on that allegory.
This a seemingly unrelated plate. But is it unrelated to the rest of this book by Theodore de Bry? The de Brys were shrewd marketeers; they knew how to motivate buyers: on one hand they aim the text at readers of Latin – the intelligentsia – academics, scholars and clergy throughout Europe, and on the other hand, aim it at the common people in their principal European languages such as the German editions. The de Brys had to tweak the text to accommodate those cultural differences and to accommodate the Protestant and Catholic clergy who wielded tremendous power over their peoples and over publishers such as those of the de Bry house. If you doubt the influence of the Protestant and Catholic churches at that time, consider the huge cathedrals already constructed or under construction: Cologne Cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris, St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, St. Paul’s in London, Reims Cathedral, Rouen Cathedral and dozens more, often at crippling costs, dominating the countryside and all within it. What better sales gimmick than to precede the numbered illustrations with one of Adam and Eve, a plate that has something for nearly everyone embracing the Judeo-Christian and Islamic religions.
As for the engraving, why doesn’t it have a plate number? A title? Who was the artist? What is its’ significance? Is this engraving a unique portrayal of Adam and Eve? Is this the only one having a hint of their descendants?
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