Bernward and Eve at Hildesheim

The bronze doors of Hildesheim (ca. 1007-1015), commissioned by Bishop Bernward, are famous for their sophisticated typological program, which conveys a message about the Fall of humanity and the opposition of Eve and Mary. Divergences from the door's pictorial models indicate that the program at Hildesheim innovatively represents Eve as a sexually provocative woman. Although grounded in patristic theology, Bernward's presentation reflects contemporary clerical concerns. At the time the doors were executed, the bishop was locked in a struggle with Sophia, abbess of Gandersheim. Bernward's biographers describe her as malevolent and dissolute; the doors themselves constitute a subtle polemical argument against the dangers posed by seductive and insolent women.