Adam and Eve Entertaining the Angel Raphael
John Martin, 1823
This painting is considered one of the greatest English paintings in the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery.
The picture is based on Books V to VII of Milton's Paradise Lost. At the far right Adam and Eve receive the angel Raphael who cautions them against disobeying God's command and warns them of Satan's plan to bring about the Fall.
The terrain descends dramatically to reveal a panoramic vista of Paradise, a visionary landscape of luxuriant growth. This is nature at its very birth, in a primal state of innocence before its corruption by man. So blissful a scene becomes even more poignant when one recalls that it was conceived at the height of the Industrial Revolution.
More information
Title of artwork, date
Adam and Eve Entertaining the Angel Raphael, 1823
Date supported
1927
Medium and material
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
131 x 198.5 cm
Gifted by
Ewan Frazer
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