Eve was a popular subject at the end of the nineteenth century, generally interpreted as femme fatale: sensuous, erotically beautiful, and seductive. But this is not how Rodin treated her. His Eve is an embodiment of shame and contrition, as she half buries her head in her arms and twists away from our gaze. Far from displaying her physical charms to the (in the nineteenth century, primarily male) viewer, Eve is covering her breasts and clenching her legs--less out of embarrassment over her nakedness than in a spasm of guilt. The woman's deep psychological anguish is powerfully communicated in her tense, inward-folding pose, while the tortured, lumpy modeling of her heavy body mirrors the torture of the soul.
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playing midi "Pegasus"