UNKNOWN MASTER, German
(active in 1410s in the Upper Rhineland)

The Garden of Eden (detail)

c. 1410
Tempera on wood
Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt

Into the picture of love and undisturbed idyll enters music as the Child Jesus, assisted by St Catherine of Alexandria, plucks on a psaltery. Beyond expressing harmony, music in this picture also refers to the divine nature of this human Jesus. The duality of his being is also intimated by a cherry tree - here substituting for a tree of life - with its twin trunk and bough, from which St Dorothy picks fruit.




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