“Oh, pain!” That’s what this Sorrowing Adam is thinking. Why did I listen to that Eve? Why, oh why…? He sits on a tree stump, ruminating on his expulsion from Paradise in this great little ivory panel in the Walters Museum of Art in Baltimore, where I am hanging out to escape darkness, cold, and gas lines in NJ. The pose in this 10th century Byzantine carving reflects the artists familiarity with classical statues of Hercules that show him at rest after some of his labors.
It seems like a good emblem of peoples’ state of mind in the aftermath of Sandy as well. Why can’t we just get things right with Mother Nature, geez!
The Walters is a fantastic museum, not the least for being free of admission charges, in downtown Baltimore. I had never been there at all. I also found this mannerist gem by Romano:
Journey to Perplexity 
Adam has remarkably well developed calves for someone with an abdominal fat pad of that size. The build of a runner who carbs up too much. The OCD running personality comes to mind, perhaps explaining Eve’s readiness to be distracted by an articulate snakehead.
Having recently finished Paradise Lost, I see a deep vein of lit-crit to be mined here…