Adam and Eve Forced to Toil (Adam et Eve assujettis au travail)

Etching with a Biblical scene of the Genesis (3:19), illustrating how Adam and Eve need to work to earn their bread, accompanied by an inscription in Latin with the verse describing the scene: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." On the left, Adam wears himself out working the dry land: miserable plantations and dry trees around him. On the right, Eve lies down, indifferent to Adam's work. Her feet are stuck like roots to the ground, and the representation of her reclined body, with the visible torso and gorge, insists on her fertility: bundles of fruits around her, animals, in the background behing her, and the tree that separates the scene in two reclining towards her, the rich foliage and fruits above her. In this picture, Eve could represent nature, which does not need to work to produce; an ungrateful nature, indifferent to the work of Adam.



The scene is part of a set of 36 prints illustrating the history of the Genesis, all with an inscription in Latin with the Biblical verse of the scene or a short summary of the passage with the story, under the lower margin of the thin, rectangular frame containing the scene. The succession of episodes in this set is somewhat chaotic, as only three plates illustrate the history of Creation, while six are consecrated to the history of Adam and Eve, and with striking breaks in the narration. The existence of more complete sets of drawings by Delaune on the same subject suggest that he might have intended more plates to illustrate the history of the Genesis in a more thorough manner, although the prints are yet to be found. Many of these prints represent, simultaneously, two or more episodes separated in time, following the 16th century tradition, inherited from the Middle Ages. Most of them are also inspired on the engravings by Bernard Salomon, created to illustrate the "Quadrins historiques de la Bible" (Historical Biblical Scenes) by Claude Paradin, first published in Lyon in 1553. This scene, however, seems to be an original composition of Delaune, which might be linked to his representation of "femme Nature" (woman Nature) in an allegory of wisdom from the same year.