Dear Cecilia,
There are 26 wall paintings dated between 1350 and 1542 of the Temptation
in which the snake has a human head. Only one of these heads is identified
as male. Most of the images show long hair and breasts.
If I can be of further help, please write. Jim
At 08:56 AM 11/28/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>Please forgive me if this message comes to you twice: I mailed it first to
>the "old address" and do not know whether it will find its way to the new
>address.
>
>For about 18 months, since I began teaching courses on medieval women, I
>have been collecting examples of a fascinating phenomenon in late medieval
>art of giving the serpent in scene's of the fall the head of a woman --
>often with the same face as that of Eve's. I have casually collected about
>a dozen and a half examples, and have been talking about the implications
>and meaning of this alot with my classes. Anyhow, I've recently been
>invited to give a talk on this, and I figured it would behoove me to
>find out what has actually been done on this -- since I can not imagine
>that such an interesting trend would go ignored by the many good people
>who work on gender and representation in the Middle Ages. But I don't knwo
>where to look. Does anybody know? I don't mean all the very good work
>done on heresy or witchcraft and women (btw, the periods coincide). I mean
>specifically, who has worked through this issue of the serpent of the fall
>as a woman? I've done the most obvious bibliographic searches, but don't
>know enough to begin. Any help?
>
>thanks. gratefully in advance - cecilia gaposchkin
>dartmouth/berkeley
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