The First Kiss
1891. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
Painted in Rome as an exercise in fulfilment of the requirements of a residential grant, which explains the marked academicism of the nude figure of Adam, Viniegra’s canvas presents the image of Eve as the bringer of original sin and the cause of mankind’s expulsion from Paradise. The attention is focused on her copious flowing hair, linked by tradition to feminine seduction, which was still regarded at the end of the nineteenth century as responsible for the loss of male innocence.
G. Navarro, Carlos, Invitadas. Fragmentos sobre mujeres, ideología y artes plásticas en España (1833-1931), Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2020, p.184 nº 25
