Creation of Eve
Eve and the Virgin
ca. 1440
The Netherlands, Utrecht
MS M.917/945, pp. 138–139
Purchased on the Belle da Costa Greene Fund with the assistance of the Fellows, 1963
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The Saturday Hours of the Virgin begin with this full-page miniature of the Creation of Eve. In the verdant Garden of Eden, a blond God pulls an equally blonde Eve from the side of a fair Adam. All is light and bliss. Eve's creation starts the illustrative cycle for the Saturday Hours of the Virgin because she is the mother of sin, and her downfall necessitated the arrival of the "New Eve," that is, the Virgin. Mary will be the mother of Christ, the Savior through whom mankind will be cleansed of the Original Sin of our first forebears.