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Base for a Statuette

1470–80
Not on view
The figures of Eve and the serpent appear on either side of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. The woman-headed serpent may represent Lilith, the legendary first wife of Adam, who rebelled against her husband and disappeared from Paradise. God then created Eve from Adam’s rib, leading the jealous Lilith to tempt Eve with the forbidden fruit. The common medieval association of Eve, mother of humankind, with Mary, mother of Jesus, suggests that this base may have supported a statuette of the Virgin.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Base for a Statuette
  • Date: 1470–80
  • Culture: South Netherlandish
  • Medium: Boxwood
  • Dimensions: 3 1/2 × 4 7/8 × 3 3/8 in. (8.9 × 12.4 × 8.6 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture-Miniature-Wood
  • Credit Line: The Cloisters Collection, 1955
  • Object Number: 55.116.2
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters

More Artwork

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Episode in the life of Joshua-Rahab, Wool, South Netherlandish
Episode in the life of Joshua-Rahab
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15th century
Virgin, Boxwood, South Netherlandish
Virgin
South Netherlandish
ca. 1500
Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece), Robert Campin Netherlandish, Oil on oak, Netherlandish
Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)
Workshop of Robert Campin
ca. 1427–32
Virgin and Child, Boxwood, South Netherlandish
Virgin and Child
South Netherlandish
16th century
Andromache and Priam Urging Hector Not to Go to War (from Scenes from the Story of the Trojan War), Pasquier Grenier of Tournai Burgundian, Wool warp, wool wefts with a few silk wefts., South Netherlandish
Andromache and Priam Urging Hector Not to Go to War (from Scenes from the Story of the Trojan War)
Probably produced through Pasquier Grenier of Tournai
ca. 1470–90

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