Eve: the first Pandora

The stories of Eve and Pandora are equated in this 1550 painting by Jean Cousin the Elder, Eva Prima Pandora (Eve the first Pandora). It features a naked woman reclining in a grotto. Her right elbow rests on a skull, indicating the bringing of death, and she holds an apple branch in that hand – both attributes of Eve. Her left arm is wreathed by a snake, another reference to the temptation of Eve, and that hand rests on an unstopped jar, a reference to Pandora. Above hangs the sign from which the painting gains its name and beneath it is a closed jar, perhaps the counterpart of the other in Olympus, containing blessings.