Adam and Eve at Tebtunis
Type:
Wall paintings
Date:
Tenth or eleventh century
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Egypt
Medium:
Tempera
Dimensions:
172 × 219 cm
Description:
The ancient Egyptian settlement at Tebtunis (no Umm al-Barakat) had a temple to the crocodile god Sebek (or Sobek); by the seventh century CE, it had four Christian churches, one of which was built of spolia from the abandoned temple. The walls of a large monastery church repainted several times included this wall painting of Adam and Eve, now in the Coptic Museum in Cairo (inv. no. 3962). Coptic inscriptions above the scene give the relevant biblical passages (Gen. 3:6, 3:8) and name the figures. The scene unfurls from right to left, with the protoparents, shown without genitalia, first eating the fruit and then covering their nudity with leaves; the snake who tempted Eve is visible at the left. The tethered horse is unprecedented and may have belonged to a different scene at the right, now lost. The painting dates to the tenth or eleventh century.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
5,
6
Image Credits:
Heather A. Badamo
