What awaits us after death? Are the green meadows, the murmur of the rivers and the warmth of the sun promises of eternal life in the Garden of Eden or is it a question of fictional mental images woven into human hopes and dreams formed in the first centuries of the development and spread of the Christian religion and art
Since time immemorial, man has dealt with questions about death and what lies beyond. In this sense, the classical ancient world of different religions and cults offered a variety of answers – from death as finality to the hope of eternal life, which was primarily reserved for the chosen ones, heroes who gained the respect of the gods.
In the literary works such as the „Epic of Gilgamesh“, in which the hero Gilgamesh is described in his pusuit to obtain eternal life, Homer’s epics „Iliad“ and „Odyssey“ or Hesiod’s „Theogony“, which will exert an exceptional influence on the Roman writers Ovid and Virgil regarding the Fortunate Isles, the place of eternal and ultimate resting place, paradise or hortus deliciarum (garden of delights), as will be defined by Isidore of Seville in the 7th century, is described and visualised as a place of peace, tranquility, prosperity and delight. Therefore, in both art and literary sources it refers to a blissful place, rich in flora and fauna, where the souls of the righteous reside after death. In ancient cultures, it can also be defined as Elysium, the Elysian Fields, the Fortunate Isles, the Garden of the Hesperides, the Pleasure Garden (Horti Sallustriani), paradeisos, etc. Nevertheless, it is most often used as a synonym for the Christian Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived before the sin and the place that awaits the righteous after death. Therefore, the word „paradise“ has denoted the place described in the Christian Bible, which begins with the story of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2: 8) and ends with the Heavenly Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation (21: 1-3; 22: 1-2), as the place of ultimate redemption located in heaven which offered salvation and triumph in the name of Christ.
A wide display of iconographical motifs, which today are clearly recognized as the image of paradise, lie on the basis of the Persian word paridaida or paridaeza referring to an enclosed place near a river Meandres (which will later transform into the four rivers of paradise – Tigris, Euphrates, Gihon and Pishon), with fountains and freshwater channels, inhabited by animals, fruit trees and plants, as can be seen in the „royal garden“ at Pasargadae. As such, it was borrowed to Greek as παράδειϬοζ (first mentioned by Greek writer Xenophon c. 430–354 BC), meaning “park for animals” or “royal park” (namely a hunting ground as will later be adopted by Alexander the Great), but also as an orchard or a park (similar to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon with trees, flowers, numerous plants, inhabited by swans, peacocks and parrots, an idea that will later be implemented by the Romans) and subsequently as gan-Eden “Garden of Righteousness”, paradise, in the Pentateuch.
In Christian Bible, paradise was created since the beginning of time, as the world was formed, and will appear at the end of time, as the righteous will dwell next to God. Based on the description in the Book of Ezekiel (28: 12-16) and the Book of Revelation (22: 11-22), the Garden of Eden was often recognized as the city of Jerusalem. Finally, at the end of the 4th century, St. Augustine defined heaven as a good place for the soul – locus amoenissimus or locus nemorosus (a wooded place), referring to a spiritual place that at the same time signifies the paradise to come. It is spatially, temporally and symbolically located on earth, but at the same time also exists in heaven.
The concept of paradise in Christian culture rests on the specific symbol of the Garden of Delights, an enclosed garden of eternal bliss, locus amoenus (a pleasant place). Being unattainable, and throughout history, paradise appeared in different secular and religious forms. It represents the backbone of Christian theological concepts and art, formed on the basis of Persian, Greco-Roman, Judean and Hellenistic philosophical thought, culture and art. In multiple forms, it has been a source of inspiration and contemplation for artists, theologians and philosophers across cultures and time periods, embodying human longing for an ideal world, a place of beauty, harmony and spiritual fulfillment. Being an intriguing and mysterious place, paradise, which lies at the core of Christian teaching, was often depicted in art and culture of early Christians and later shaped the ideal and ultimate human resting place as we know it today. There is probably nothing as deep, layered and at the same time intriguing as the desire and search for paradise, which in fact becomes a search for immortality or at least an attempt to reach a state of inner harmony and bliss.
So, how did the Christians visually construct the image of paradise?
Given that this is essentially an enclosed garden with meadows, flowers, trees and a water source, it is quite certain that, apart from terminology, Persian culture and art influenced its visualisation. One such example can be seen in the former gardens situated outside of the Palace of Darius I in Persepolis (fig. 1). Similar visual narrative can be seen in Ancient Greek art, among numerous examples of vase painting and painted tombs, as some have been discovered in today’s Northern Italy, with depictions of inhabited places, with trees, flowers and birds. Although much of the program found in painted tombs does not seem to correspond directly to the descriptions of Elysium, separate motifs such as trees (especially palms), birds, flowers, garlands, etc. unequivocally allude to the place of eternal resting place and will become a kind of standard in the visualization of the Garden of Eden. Such motifs were very popular in Roman art, as we see on the example of fresco in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, today at Museo Nazionale Romano (fig. 2). Motifs of grapevines, putti or animals eating grapes or drinking water from a spring are also common in representing paradeisoi, like in the so-called Tomb of the Nymphs, in Ashkelon, Israel, dated in the middle of the 3rd century (fig. 3), or images of animals and/or venators, found on vases and wall painting, floor mosaics, reliefs, sarcophagi, etc., like on the example of the Great hunt mosaic from the Villa Romana del Casale, Piazza Armerina, Sicily, from the beginning of the 4th century (fig. 4).
The above-mentioned images and motifs were deeply woven into the newly formed Christian religion, visible first of all in the fresco paintings of excavated and preserved catacombs. Pastoral landscapes, meadows with flowers, trees, birds, peacocks, deer, interweaving vines and ivy, images of the Good shepherd, Orans, Jonah, and other prophets are there to remind us of the future to come (fig. 5). As soon as Christianity was granted legal recognition with the Edict of Milan in 313, one can notice the rapid development of Christian iconography on the walls, vaults, apses of churches, mausoleums and baptisteries with images of Christ, apostles, saints and martyrs placed in the center of the composition, surrounded by meadows, trees, flowers, birds. Such examples can be seen in the mosaic decoration of the Mausoleum of Santa Costanza in Rome from cc. 350 (fig. 6), the apse of the church of Sant’Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna from the 6th century (fig. 7) or the dome of the Baptistery of Neon in Ravenna cc. 450 (fig. 8).
The motif of fons vitae, from which deer, peacocks or birds are fed, remained in Christian art until the end of the Middle Ages and can be found, apart from the mosaics of early Christian churches, also in book illumination, most often in the form of a fountain or amphora placed above headpieces which mark the beginning of the gospels, like in the manuscript from Patmos from the monastery of St. John (no. 81) on fol. 293 or it is presented so that it occupies an entire folio of the
codex, like we see on the examples of Carolingian manuscripts such as the Godescalc Evangelistary on fol. 3v (fig. 9). As part of book illumination, we find examples in which the Garden of Eden is precisely defined, as in the example of Dobreyshovo Gospels (NBKM no. 17), dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, with an inscription on fol. 121 that reads „ce ïecтъ рай иже нарицается парадись“. This means that in the terminology of the old illuminators and copyists there was a name for a certain ornamented field, the so-called „flat meadow“, which was called paradeisos (paradise).
An image of a tree as an allusion to the Tree of Life and the Holy Cross (presented in the form of the Crucifixion of Christ or the scene of the finding of the Holy Cross by the mother of Constantine the Great – Helen), represents another motif in the depiction and marking of the Garden of Eden. One example is the Harbaville Triptych (fig. 10) made of ivory in the 10th century in Constantinople. On the back of the triptych there is a representation of a cross worshiped by cypress trees, set in an idyllic landscape and a starry sky. The Monza ampullae from the 6th-7th centuries, numerous manuscripts such as the Gelasian Sacramentary from the 6th century (reg. lat. 316, fol. 3v) or the Gellone Sacramentary from the 8th century (MS. Lat. 12048, fol. 76v), ivory bookcovers like the one from the Cathedral Treasury of Milan from around 450, all testify to the use of different materials, techniques and iconography in the representation and visualization of the Garden of Eden, in whose the center is the lignum vitae, i.e. the arbor crucis, often represented with leaves, flowers and fruits. The scenes of the finding of the Holy Cross were especially developed in the art of the late Middle Ages, as in the works of Agnolo Gaddi, Piero della Francesco or Simon Marmion.
Branka Vranešević, PhD, is a full professor at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Art History. She teaches courses in Ancient and Medieval art history, with special focus on early Christian iconography. Her interdisciplinary research and publications are focused on Ancient and Medieval art history, while exploring the way visual images reflect on architectural spaces and devotional piety. Branka Vranešević has written extensively on early Christian floor mosaics and the formation of Medieval Christian iconography, the relationship between material culture and its visual expression, the meaning and function of ornaments in early Christian and Medieval art, and other aspects of cultural history. She is the author of two monographs on Serbian medieval illuminated manuscripts, with special interest in the relationship between text and image.
The highlight of the artistic and iconographic narrative in visualising paradise is the mosaic decoration of the apse of the Church of San Clemente in Rome, dated in the 5th or the 6th century and reconstructed in the 12th century (fig. 11). Stylized acanthus, set on a golden background, spreads through the earthly and heavenly space of the apse in the form of a vine scroll, with birds, animals and people, has in its center a representation of the Crucifixion of Christ. At the base of the composition the four rivers of paradise flow. Two deer, symbolically representing the souls of the deceased (Ps. 42:1), are drinking water from the spring and are flancked by two peacocks, symbols of immortality. Underneath the whole composition is the Lamb of God. Birds perched on acanthus tendrils and other animals feed on the bunches, with water that flows from the trunk of the tree indicates that the whole scene is taking place in paradise.
Since the Cross on which Christ was crucified was made from the wood of the Tree of Life, the one from the Garden of Eden, we can assume that at this point paradise, Golgotha and the Heavenly Jerusalem conjoin in reaching eternal glory in the sky of the New Jerusalem, as is suggested in the Book of Revelation (22: 2). The eternity is here to stay.