14 Works, Interpretation of the bible, The Lilith Myth, with Footnotes - 194

There are several accounts of the Lilith Mythology.

The biblical book of Genesis contains two contradictory accounts of humanity’s creation. In the Priestly version, Genesis 1:26-27, Lilith, Adam's first wife, was created at the same time as Adam, and from the same earth. This contrasts with Eve, who was created from one of Adam's ribs. Lilith (some times called Lamia) left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she coupled with the archangel Samael. The resulting Lilith legend is still commonly used as source material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy, and horror.

Burney Relief, Babylon (1800-1750 BCE). 

Ishtar, c. 19th-18th century BCE

Clay

Height: 49.5 cm (19.5 in), Width: 37 cm (15 in)

British Museum, London

The figure in the relief was sometimes identified with Lilith, based on a misreading of an outdated translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Modern research has identified the figure as either Ishtar or Ereshkigal.

In the Bible, the only occurrence of lilith is in the Book of Isaiah 34:14, The Hebrew word lilit (or lilith) appears in a list of eight unclean animals, some of which may have demonic associations. Translators often associated the complete list of eight creatures as one whole. More on Lilth

John Collier  (1850–1934)

Lilith, c. 1892

Oil on canvas

Atkinson Art Gallery and Library

John Collier’s Lilith is a painting made in 1889, depicting the Kabbalistic demoness, known as Adam’s first wife. Born by the hand of the Creator, and shaped from impure clay, which influenced her demonic nature, she is punished and condemned to see her offspring die. Thirsty for revenge, she takes the form of the snake of temptation and incites Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Abel is also a victim of Lilith’s perversity as she leads Caïn to commit fratricide. More on this painting

The Honourable John Maler Collier (27 January 1850 – 11 April 1934) was a leading English artist, and an author. He painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style, and was one of the most prominent portrait painters of his generation. Both his marriages were to daughters of Thomas Henry Huxley. He studied painting at the Munich Academy where he enrolled on 14 April 1875 (Register: 3145) at the age of 25. More on John Maler Collier

Lilith was said to be a figure of terror, feared as a demon or vampire, and a night monster. She is also known as Lamia; Keats describes her as a serpent which assumed the shape of a beautiful woman 'palpitating snake ... of dazzling hue, vermillion spotted, golden, green and blue', and it is this image which seems to have captured Collier's imagination. The subject also attracted John William Waterhouse and the Symbolists. 

From Adam's union with this demoness, and with another like her named Naamah, Tubal Cain's sister, sprang Asmodeus and innumerable demons that still plague mankind. Many generations later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgement seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem'.

Michelangelo

Detal; Lilith with Adam and Eve. (1508-12)

Vatican's Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 1475 – 18 February 1564), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with contemporary rival and fellow Florentine Medici client, Leonardo da Vinci.

 

A number of Michelangelo's works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence. His output in every field of interest was prodigious; given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences taken into account, he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century.

 

Two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, were sculpted before the age of thirty. Despite his low opinion of painting, Michelangelo also created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its altar wall. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library. At the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan, the western end being finished to Michelangelo's design, the dome being completed after his death with some modification.

 

In his lifetime he was also often called Il Divino ("the divine one"). One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, a sense of awe-inspiring grandeur, and it was the attempts of subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelo's impassioned and highly personal style that resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. More on Michelangelo

Hugo van der Goes ca. 1440 – 1482

The Fall of Adam, c. after 1479

Oil on panel (32 × 22 cm)

MuseumKunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

This is the left panel of a diptych. The right panel shows the Lamentation. Perhaps Van der Goes intended to show two important moments in Christianity side by side. On the left the Fall of Man, when mankind appearantly was doomed to suffer and dwell on earth for ever. On the right the Death on the Cross, the moment salvation came within reach. More on this painting

In the foreground the snake (Lilith) succeeds in letting Eve eat from the forbidden fruit.

Hugo van der Goes (c. 1430/1440 – 1482) was one of the most significant and original Flemish painters of the late 15th century. Van der Goes was an important painter of altarpieces as well as portraits. He introduced important innovations in painting through his monumental style, use of a specific colour range and individualistic manner of portraiture. From 1483 onwards, the presence of his masterpiece, the Portinari Triptych, in Florence played a role in the development of realism and the use of colour in Italian Renaissance art

In 1483, there arrived in Florence a masterpiece of the Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes. Now known as the Portinari Altarpiece. The painting was in oil paint, not the tempera employed in Florence, and demonstrated the flexibility of that medium. The aspect of the painting that had a profound effect on Ghirlandaio was the naturalism with which the shepherds were depicted. More on Hugo van der Goes

Titian 1487/90 – 1576

The Fall, c. 1550

Oil on canvas

 (240 × 186 cm)

Museo del Prado, Madrid

Eve takes a fruit from the tree, even though God had explicitly forbidden her and Adam to do so. She is tempted by a snake in the tree. Adam, sitting, seems to try to stop her.

Titian probably got the idea of showing Adam seated from a fresco by Raphael in the Stanza della Signatura.

The fox behind Eve is considered to be a symbol of the devil. More on this painting

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, or Titian (1488/1490 – 27 August 1576), was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. 

 

Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars", Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art.

 

During the course of his long life, Titian's artistic manner changed drastically but he retained a lifelong interest in color. Although his mature works may not contain the vivid, luminous tints of his early pieces, their loose brushwork and subtlety of tone are without precedent in the history of Western painting. More on Titian

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, 1592

The Fall of Man

Oil on canvas

273 cm × width 220 cm

Rijksmuseum

The Fall. Adam and Eve standing before the tree of knowledge. A snake hands Eve an apple. All kinds of animals around the figures: monkey, cat, dog, slugs, hedgehog, frog, fox and owl. In the left background, Adam and Eve are warned by God not to eat from the tree. More on this painting

Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem (1562 – 11 November 1638), Dutch Golden Age painter and draughtsman, was one of the leading Northern Mannerist artists in the Netherlands, and an important forerunner of Frans Hals as a portraitist. He is known among art historians as a member of the Haarlem Mannerists. He painted mainly portraits as well as mythological and Biblical subjects. Initially Cornelis Cornelisz painted large-size, highly stylized works with Italianate nudes in twisted poses with a grotesque, unnatural anatomy. Later, his style changed to one based on the Netherlandish realist tradition.

When his parents fled Haarlem in 1568, as the Spanish army laid siege to the city during the Eighty Years' War, Cornelis Cornelisz remained behind and was raised by the painter Pieter Pietersz the Elder. Later, in 1580-1581 Corneliszoon studied in Rouen, France, and Antwerp, before returning to Haarlem, where he stayed the rest of his life. In 1583 he received his first official commission from the city of Haarlem, a militia company portrait, the Banquet of the Haarlem Civic Guard. He later became city painter of Haarlem and received numerous official commissions. As a portrait painter, both of groups and individuals, he was an important influence on Frans Hals. More Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem

Richard Westall  (1765–1836)

Faust and Lilith, c. 1831

Oil on canvas

height: 248.4 cm (97.7 in); width: 174 cm (68.5 in)

London, Royal Academy

Faust preparing to dance with the young witch at the festival of the Wizards and Witches in the Hartz Mountains.

There is a bit of confusion or ambiguity as to whether Faust actually dances with Lilith or with a different young witch. In either case, Westall was clearly intrigued by the subject and sought to make Faust’s partner the most seductive of women.

Other aspects of this painting also adhere to information supplied in the original text, most especially the musical back drop against which the scene of unbridled lovemaking takes place. More on this painting

Richard Westall RA (2 January 1765 – 4 December 1836) was an English painter and illustrator of portraits, historical and literary events, best known for his portraits of Byron. He was also Queen Victoria's drawing master. Born oin Reepham near Norwich, Richard Westall moved to London after the death of his mother and the bankruptcy of his father in 1772. Westall was apprenticed to a heraldic silver engraver in 1779, where he was encouraged to become a painter by John Alefounder; he then began studying at the Royal Academy School of Arts from 10 December 1785. He exhibited at the Academy regularly between 1784 and 1836, became an Associate in November 1792 and was elected an Academician on 10 February 1794. From 1790 to 1795 he shared a house with Thomas Lawrence (later Sir), the future Royal Academy president, each of the artists placing their name on one of the entrances. More on Richard Westall

Scholars are not certain where the character of Lilith originally comes from, though many believe she was inspired by Sumerian myths about female vampires called “Lillu” or Mesopotamian myths about succubae (female night demons) called “lilin.”

Lilith is also a white-eyed demon who was at one point human. She is the first demon to ever be created, her soul having been twisted by Lucifer as an act of spite against God. Due to her status as the first demon, she is the last of the 66 Seals, with her death breaking the last seal and releasing Lucifer from the Cage he was imprisoned in for her creation.

Black Moon Lilith, Damned if we do, damned if we don’t! So, don’t do! Crawling forth from the great ocean, lost in the desert, aspiring to the heavens,  returning to the ocean, Lilith represents our rise from the ashes.

Michel Desimon, French, 1930-40

Lilith

Dawn Austin

Lilith In The Garden

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