Monthly Masterpiece - November

Sacred art can help us to contemplate the mysteries of our faith. 
Every month we will look at a different image and the mystery it represents. 
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The Work of Adam and Eve
Mosaic in the
Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily 

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Designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the Cathedral of Monreale which is dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, dates from the second half of the 12th century. It was founded by William II, the third Norman king of Sicily, who entrusted the interior decoration to the most celebrated Byzantine mosaicists of the time. The mosaics are brightly coloured on a gold ground, and totally cover the walls up to the central apse which has Christ in Glory above the Virgin who thrones with her Son.
 
In the nave, scenes from the Old Testament illustrate types of Christ and his work of redemption and depict the figures and events which foretold and prepared for his coming. In the upper part, these scenes begin with the Genesis account which unfolds like a comic strip, easy to read and understand. The Work of Adam and Eve is found between the scene of the Exclusion from Paradise and the story of Cain and Abel. On a snow-capped mountain, where plants and a tree grow near flowing waters, Adam and Eve work, clothed with camel skins. We see Eve seated on a mound, carrying a spindle of wool in her right hand (the way the Virgin Mary is represented in the Annunciation scene here in Monreal and a motif frequently used in other mediaeval depictions), with her head resting on the other hand, looking afflicted; in front of her, Adam turns the soil energetically: two activities emblematic of the feminine and masculine work of that period.
 
In the Genesis account, work may appear as a curse:
 
    And to Adam he said,
    “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
    and have eaten of the tree
    of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
    cursed is the ground because of you;
    in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
    thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field (Gen. 3:17-18).  
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However, in his Encyclical Laborem exercens[1] (1981) Pope John Paul II brings out that work itself was indeed part of the divine plan from even before the Fall: the mission to dominate and subject the earth was a free and happy participation in the creative work of God, and even a share in his lordship. It was following on from sin, that work then became a task that was painful and necessary to nourish all the members of the family. But with Jesus, the “son of the carpenter”, work regained its dignity, and Joseph is henceforth the model worker.                                                                            Marie Thérèse de Ruffray

[1] Encyclical On Human Work published 14 Septembre 1981 on 90th anniverary of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum Pope Léon XIII.
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