God Spoke the Earth: Stories of Genesis in Prints and Drawings

God Spoke the Earth: Stories of Genesis in Prints and Drawings focuses on the enduring narratives of the book of Genesis and highlights the breadth of Emory’s holdings in this genre. Drawn from the permanent collections of the Carlos Museum, Pitts Theology Library, and MARBL (Now known as the Stuart A. Rose Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Book Library), this exhibition includes a variety of artistic approaches to the ancient story of creation, from Albrecht Dürer’s famed 1504 engraving, Adam and Eve (The Fall of Man) to Marc Chagall’s 1960 lithograph, Bible II-Creation.

The first book of the Torah and the Old Testament, Genesis recounts the origin and beginning of all things. It introduces the Judeo-Christian understanding of a monotheistic God who created and controls the world, and revolves around the sequential themes of creation, sin, re-creation, and redemption. These themes can be traced through the various stories of Genesis, from Creation through the Fall of Man, the Flood, God’s call and promise to Abraham, and more.

The works of art in this exhibition span the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries, and offer insight into how artists and communities throughout time depicted Genesis narratives and contemplated God’s relationship with mankind. A leaf from a twelfth-century French Bible, the earliest work in the exhibition, depicts a small scene of the Creation of Adam followed by an image of Adam and Eve eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, both in exquisite hand-painted detail. These pictures are followed by a New Testament image of Christ’s crucifixion, reminding the medieval Christian viewer of God’s ultimate redemptive act for the salvation of mankind.

Alternately, several works in the exhibition reveal the political climate of the artist’s surroundings. For example, the inscription on a poignant seventeenth-century German drawing of Jacob’s Ladder may draw a comparison between the Redemption of Mankind and the Peace of Westphalia, which brought an end to the Thirty Years War.

The title of the exhibition derives from the Creation Story recounted in the second chapter of Genesis, in which God speaks the creation of Earth and all living things. It denotes the mysterious, creative power of the Judeo-Christian God that has captivated and inspired artists, and offers a testament to the lasting importance of stories of Genesis.