# Art History: why doesn't Adam have a beard? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 11, 2005, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552 "2005-11-11T08:26:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Giant\_Spongess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@Giant\_Spongess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giant_Spongess)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/1 "2005-11-11T08:26:41Z")
It’s silly that I’ve only just barely noticed this, but why doesn’t Adam have a beard in pictures of the Garden of Eden? I mean, they’re adults. They certainly didn’t have razors or anything. My guess is bare-facedness suggests innocence, while beardedness, the sign of adult manhood, doesn’t. Hmm… So, opinions? ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/2 "2005-11-11T08:52:04Z")
While wandering the religious art at the Getty, I was struck by how all of the naked women are totally hairless. Totally and completely. I asked one of the art historians who was giving a tour and she explained that it was just the style and how they did things. Certainly everyone was really, really hairy back in the day. But I like your deeper suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/3 "2005-11-11T08:56:12Z")
My grandmother’s bible featured a bunch of Renaissance era paintings. One of which had God as balding. I guess it’s just that balding equaled wisdom to the painter. Kinda jives with your guess **Giant\_Spongess**. Nothing else I can think of makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/4 "2005-11-11T09:38:24Z")
> [@Fern Forest](#): > > . . . Kinda [del]jives[/del] with your guess **Giant\_Spongess**. Nothing else I can think of makes sense. [hijacky nitpick] \*\*jibes \*\*[/nitpicky hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/5 "2005-11-11T09:45:50Z")
Pictures of Adam _after_ the expulsion from the Garden often do show him bearded. [Working a shovel](http://www.paintedchurch.org/brougcex.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/6 "2005-11-11T09:51:46Z")
It just occurred to me that the concept of the Garden of Eden may also have been that Adam and Eve lived in a state of timelessness. If Adam was created without a beard, then he would stay that way as long as he stayed in the garden. Only their sins and expulsion brought them to mortality. Remember what happened to the native woman in _Lost Horizon_ when she left Shangri-La? Same concept. ---
**Author:** ![Giant\_Spongess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@Giant\_Spongess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giant_Spongess)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/7 "2005-11-11T10:00:56Z")
Yeah, that’s pretty much what went through my mind after I posted this. Mostly I’m fascinated that it just barely occurred to me. It’s such a strong tradition that I’ve never questioned it before. Then I was looking at [this picture](http://www.galeriemichael.com/images/art/large/028902867.jpg) which has Adam with a mustache/beardlet, which made me wonder. Weird how some things are just unconsciously accepted. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/8 "2005-11-11T10:01:53Z")
[Temptation](http://www.bramarte.it/romanico/img/scu1.jpg) of (bearded) Adam and Eve. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/9 "2005-11-11T10:04:27Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > [hijacky nitpick] \*\*jibes \*\*[/nitpicky hijack] Hmm, I see. Although like a mislearned lyric it may be with me to stay. Plus vees are cool. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/10 "2005-11-11T10:05:33Z")
Oh and Masaccio has him with a [beard](http://amata.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/Masaccio_Masolino_Firenze_Brancacci_Adamo_Eva.jpg) too. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/11 "2005-11-11T10:51:20Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > Oh and Masaccio has him with a [beard](http://amata.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/Masaccio_Masolino_Firenze_Brancacci_Adamo_Eva.jpg) too. While Eve is… er… beardless. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/12 "2005-11-11T11:22:30Z")
Those of [Jan van Eyck](http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/e/eyck_van/jan/09ghent/1open1/u1adam1.html), [Gossaert](http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=L14), [Memling](http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/memling/3mature2/25notri2.html), [Holbein](http://www.abcgallery.com/H/holbein/holbein1.html), [Cranach (in various versions)](http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/cranach/lucas_e/1/), [Titian](http://www.viaartis.org/en/Tiziano/PIC_Tiziano-PRA429.php) and [Rubens](http://www.trabel.com/antwerp/antwerp-rubenshouse.htm) also all have beards. As these examples (except Titian) imply, a high proportion of the famous paintings of Adam in Western art are ones by Northern European artists from the early-modern period, among whom the subject of Adam and Eve was noticeably more common than in other traditions. Moreover, they usually showed him with a beard. The obvious counterexamples are, of course, those by Durer. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/13 "2005-11-11T13:09:15Z")
Maybe beards were more common in northern Europe than southern Europe, so Northern European Adams were bearded more often than Southern European Adams? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/14 "2005-11-11T13:55:22Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > It just occurred to me that the concept of the Garden of Eden may also have been that Adam and Eve lived in a state of timelessness. One interpretation I’ve seen of the Garden of Eden story (and it makes a certain amount of sense, even if it isn’t completely satisfying) is that the penalties Adam and Eve faced as a result of eating the forbidden fruit were analagous to, or metaphors for, growing up—leaving the innocence of childhood. Which the hairlessness would fit well with. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/15 "2005-11-11T16:57:40Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Maybe beards were more common in northern Europe than southern Europe, so Northern European Adams were bearded more often than Southern European Adams? I did think of that and there also the fact that fashions in beards changed over time. But artistic conventions were never quite that simple. In the case of Adam, there’s the complication that there could be two contradictory traditions. On the one hand, artists could want to protray him as physically perfect, either for theological reasons (because he was the handiwork of God etc.) or for artistic ones (because it was an excuse to show a nude male body). On the other hand, they might want to stress his ordinariness, again either for theological reasons (because we are all his descendants etc.) or for artistic ones (because it made it easier for the viewer to identify with him). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/16 "2005-11-11T17:13:43Z")
Hey, I recognize the Adam in that [Gossaert](http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/largeImage?workNumber=L14&collectionPublisherSection=work) painting. It’s [Bob Ross](http://www.bobross.com/)! ---
**Author:** ![moonstarssun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@moonstarssun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonstarssun)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/17 "2005-11-11T18:04:40Z")
I majored in art history, and this question came up often. Hairlessness (according to a couple of my profs anyway) in Renaissance and Baroque art represents purity, an idea that may stem from the less-than-wonderful hygiene at the time. Clean, smooth skin was highly desirable and probably pretty difficult to achieve, so depicting people (especially women) as hairless was a way of showing that they were above reproach. And although Michelangelo’s paintings of biblical characters usually didn’t have hair, good ol’ David has pubes. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/18 "2005-11-11T18:19:27Z")
> [@Fern Forest](#): > > My grandmother’s bible featured a bunch of Renaissance era paintings. One of which had God as balding. I guess it’s just that balding equaled wisdom to the painter. Or that the painter’s patron was bald. 😉 I’ve never seen a painting of Adam and Eve in which they didn’t have navels. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/19 "2005-11-11T18:43:08Z")
Don’t forget the strong Classical tradition. The greeks were viewed as perfect and the source of all knowlege, and thus there were tendencies towards aping them. The Young Man, the athlete statues, as opposed to the Statesman statues, tended to be clean shaven ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552/20 "2005-11-11T19:14:19Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > [Temptation](http://www.bramarte.it/romanico/img/scu1.jpg) of (bearded) Adam and Eve. Nitpick. If that was a temptation, shouldn’t there be some forbidden fruit? That looks like God creating Eve from sleeping Adam to me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/art-history-why-doesnt-adam-have-a-beard/330552.md?page=2)