Picture 3 / 4
The Fall of Man
Michelangelo, The Fall and the Expulsion from Paradise, c. 1509–10
- Painter
- Michelangelo
- Collection
- Sistine Chapel, Vatican
- Scripture
- Genesis 3:6
- Published
- 4 October 2026
- Image
- Wikimedia Commons, public domain ↗
One field, two moments. On the left the pair reach for the fruit, and the serpent coiled round the tree has the body of a woman. On the right an angel with a sword drives them out.
The tree stands in the middle and divides the field into before and after. On the left the landscape is green and the bodies are at ease; on the right the ground is bare. Michelangelo lets Adam reach into the tree himself: he is not merely handed the fruit.
The serpent ends in a woman's body and hands the fruit down to Eve.
Driven out, the two have other faces. Eve cowers and looks back; Adam fends off the sword with both hands.