The greeting from the angel’s mouth
Greeting thee, O royal spotless maid,
Hath told me this.’[312]
Therefore the apple, which masters of the Flemish and early German schools sometimes introduced into Annunciations, laying it, for instance, upon the window-sill, is the apple of redemption.
The apple in the hand of Eve is always the apple of damnation. There is a curious drawing by Martin Schöngauer of the ‘Descent into Hell.’ Adam and Eve come forth first of the released souls, Eve holding the apple, which has the marks of her teeth still upon it.
In the hand of Mary it is again the apple of redemption, but it is the fruit of the Fall when it is between the jaws of the serpent or dragon, which she, at her Assumption, treads under foot.
Martin Schöngauer
ADAM AND EVE DELIVERED FROM HELL
(Print Room, Alte Pinakothek, Munich)