Creation & Expulsion by Giovanni di Paolo is at The Met

a 15th century italian painting of god the father in a toga swooping out of a wormhole in the sky in the upper left to create the world, which is nested in a series of concentric circles that each represent the heavens and the elements, with a map of the edenic earth at the center. this is the left side of the painting. the right side is a winged angel shooing adam and eve out of their garden paradise, with a couple of symbolically loaded trees behind them, and some rivers at their feet. painted in 1445 by giovanni di paolo, this is at the metropolitan museum now
Giovanni di Paolo, Creation of the World and Expulsion from Paradise, 1445, tempera on panel, 18 1/4 x 20 1/2 in., locked in the Lehman collection at the Met

I saw some color theory on tumblr last night that reminded me of this painting, and I could not remember who made it or where it was. I felt like it was not at the Met, probably the National Gallery. And I started to wonder if there was an executive order banning searches for rainbow apocalypse. Was it in a gallery that’s closed for renovation?

Anyway, this morning Peter Huestis generously suggested he thought he knew which painting I was talking about, and that was indeed at the Met. And eventually yet, there it was. And the reason I couldn’t picture it at the Met was because it’s in the Lehman Gallery section, segregated off from the rest of the 15th century Italian paintings, including the other piece the Met has from the same Sienese altarpiece.

Anyway, I’m putting it here so I don’t lose it again. It’s Giovanni di Paolo’s Creation of the World and Expulsion from Paradise, 1445, from the Guelfi Altarpiece in the Church of San Domenico, which is in the Uffizi.

And it turns out that’s not a rainbow encircling a vision of another plane; it’s the nested spheres of the heavens with the paradisiacal earth at the center. I readily recognize that this is perhaps a suboptimal practice, and that my memory palace needs some refurbishing and a rehang. So be it.