Early modern Edens: the landscape and language of paradise

Abstract

In Jan Collaert's engraving after Maerten de Vos, God is depicted as a benevolent patriarch engaged in his Creation (figurer). Slightly later, the print was reissued by a different publisher (C.J. Visscher) under the more specific title of The Creation of Eve (figure 2). Here, Collaert's anthropornorphic God has become an aureole of light inscribed with the Latin word ‘pater’ (father), which is itself intertwined with the Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew name for God. In its transliterated form — as the four consonants YHWH — the Tetragrammaton is unpronounceable owing to the conviction that the name of God is too sacred to be uttered. This has complex implications for the representation of the Creation, particularly for the depiction of God speaking to Adam and Eve and of Adam in his role as ‘nomothete’ (name-giver) (figure 3).1