Representations of Adam and Eve in Late Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century English Embroidery

Abstract

English domestic embroidery underwent an extraordinary flowering in the late sixteenth- and seventeenth centuries. Much of the embroidery produced was pictorial, and until the later seventeenth century, the most popular single source of subject matter was the Bible. In this chapter an attempt is made to trace how this conception of nature influenced the themes and treatment of embroidered work in explicitly religious subject matter - the Garden of Eden - in order to show how they thus enlivened the domestic interior with an aesthetic beauty that was instinct with spiritual affect and poetic meaning. It examines the theme of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in embroideries that pertained to specifically religious contexts. The presence of Adam and Eve, progenitors of the human race, was thus natural at the opening scene of what was regarded as the great drama of redemption. Keywords:Adam; Bible; English domestic embroidery; Eve; Garden of Eden; religious context; seventeenth century; sixteenth century