 |
Where is Paradise?
Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden haunted the medieval mind. The garden was a deeply symbolic space, its enclosed arbours representing the purity of the Virgin Mary, its fountains and idealised streams reflecting redemptive waters. The idea was not to attempt a recreation of paradise, but to remind man of what he had lost.
Enlarged image |
Enlarged image |
 |
 |
The dreamer lying by a stream.
Cotton MS Nero A.X., f.37
Copyright © The British Library Board |
Le Roman de la rose
The Garden of Pleasure, late 15th Century Flemish. Harley MS
4425, f.12v
Copyright © The British Library Board |
In the case of the dreamer lying upon a heady, flower-powdered spot in the beautiful and instructive Middle English poem ' Pearl ', the garden pointed to a state of perfection once intact, now broken, and longed for again.
|
 |