The Fall

The tree of knowledge forms the central axis on the north side. The serpent is writhed round its trunk and stretches its head towards Adam, who covers his nakedness with one hand, as does Eve.
On the east side Adam, whose name is inscribed above him, and God the Father stand facing each other. The cruciform halo of the Creator signifies the essential identity between Father and Son. God passes judgment on the disobedience of the first sinner, but this parallel also symbolizes the essence of the whole Christian exegesis: Christ as the new Adam and liberator from original sin. In the Letter to the Romans (5:14) this is expressed as follows: “[…] Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.” The south side shows Adam and Eve clad in animal skins as they are being expelled from Paradise by the angel with “a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life”. The closed door of Paradise shows various architectural details.Lastly on the west side we see Adam and Eve at work: Adam is swinging his axe to cut off the branch of a tree, which Eve bends downward. Ambrose of Milan compares the Cross with the tree of the Fall: “From the tree of Paradise came death, from the tree of the Cross rose life.” Irenaeus of Lyon gave a similar account; for him a felled, i.e. dead, tree gave rise to the life-giving Cross, whereas the living tree of the Garden of Eden had brought death. Venantius Fortunatus apostrophized the “Tree of the Cross” in verse as follows: “Bend down your branches, lofty tree, loosen your outstretched limbs/ and relax the native tension of the all too rigid wood, from which you derived your origin/ so that you may gently bear the outspread limbs of the highest king.” Adam and Eve seem in this representation to be indeed preparing the wood of the redeeming Cross.

tree cross Adam Eve Sin sinner Adam Christ animal Skin Paradise Eden Lyon Irenaeus