A Comparison of the Depiction of Nudity in Genesis and Praxiteles' Venus

Adam and Eve in Genesis were initially unworried about their nudity, but after they eat the fruit to gain knowledge of good and evil, they spiritually die, resulting in feeling shameful and afraid. This is represented through the image Adam and Eve, for the figures are posed with their heads slightly down, not looking at each other,with their arms in front of them. Their hunched shoulders form a smooth line down to their hands, which are holding a leaf as clothing. The eyes are directed to the leaf; to emphasize how strongly Adam and Eve feel the need to cover them, especially in front of God. This shame leads one to believe the book of Genesis claims nudity is bad, and in extension that disobeying God is bad.

In contrast, Praxiteles’s Venus uses human nudity as a symbol of pleasure and love. Adam and Eve look away in shame, but Venus looks off into the distance, as if unabashed by her nudity. There is a hand in front to cover herself, but her posture is relaxed, not rigid, making it seem covering herself was an afterthought, not the most pressing matter, like in Adam and Eve. The Erotespraises the female form, not just seeing the sculpture as art, but the female form itself as art. This contrasts greatly toGenesis, where the body was not described, just the evocation of shame. When representing the goddess of love, it seems appropriate for her to be nude, and for this to be appreciated and praised.

Nudity is not a natural state of being in Genesis, because God as an omniscient ruler is aware that His creations will eat from the tree, resulting in their embarrassment at being nude. The mention of their nudity as good is foreshadowing their new ability to decide for themselves what is good and what is not. The lesson is not one of praise to God and the perfection of his creations, but of punishment from Him to Adam and Eve due to their decision to think of their nude bodies as unnatural. Venus was a unique sculpture for the time, because it was one of the only goddesses portrayed nude. The viewers would fawn and exclaim in wonderment at the smooth curves of Venus’s body, and being able to walk around and see the sculpture from behind was much admired and appreciated. In this sense, Venus’s natural form does not seem to be nude. Since this sculpture is the original nude goddess, Praxiteles is pushing beyond what anyone knows about deities, and making assumptions that result in viewers being partial to Venus in this form. Both texts portray nudity to a reader, but Christianity represents it as something shameful and Paganism represents the beauty of the human form through a goddess. Neither Genesis nor Erotes make it clear to a reader that a human form should be nude and that there should be neutral responses to this nudity.

Christianity and Paganism are similar, because both involve sacrifice to gods/goddesses or the one God for discretions or help, especially Christ’s ultimate sacrifice to redeem all sinners from Adam and Eve’s spiritual fall. The Adam and Eve image depicts a lamb on the right behind Eve. This is a symbol for the sacrifices humans have to make to God for their discretions, due to Adam and Eve’s original sin. This would be a crucial image to see for a newly converted Christian, just like JuniusBassus, because sacrifice is seen as a natural occurrence in religion. Venus is placed on a plinth high above onlookers, so they could look up to pray and leave sacrifices. Repeating practices represented in religion made the transition from Paganism to Christianity for Romans seem natural, especially when coupled with prefiguration. A figure used in the Old Testament to portray a lesson would become more formidable to Romans if it could be refigured to fit a New Testament story. Sacrifice as a result of the original sin is symbolized through a lamb, so representing Jesus as the Lamb of God creates a resonation in Christians of the final sacrifice; because of the deep significance they have placed on it.