Artwork Page for Adam and Eve

Details / Information for Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve

c. 1514

Hans Baldung

(German, 1484/85–1545)
Culture
Germany
Medium
woodcut
Measurements
Image: 22.2 x 15.3 cm (8 3/4 x 6 in.); Sheet: 22.2 x 15.3 cm (8 3/4 x 6 in.)
Credit Line
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1953.354
Catalogue raisonné
Karlsruhe 219.1 ; Hollstein II.74.1
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

The initials "HBG" on the tablet at lower right are the initials of the artist, Hans Baldung Grien.

Description

A student of Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baldung absorbed his master’s ideas for his own version of Adam and Eve. Set within a dark northern European forest, the first couple has already plucked the fruit from the central tree of knowledge. The starring role in the narrative goes to the serpent, whose massive form wraps around the tree, its monstrous head with jaws agape pointed toward Adam. With simplified garden imagery, the image may focus on the question of who bears responsibility for original sin: Adam, Eve, or the devil.
A vertically oriented print in black ink depicts a forest with Adam on the left and Eve on the right, a nude man and woman with defined muscles and wavy hair. Adam reaches toward a tree while holding a fruit. Eve faces him, holding a leafy branch. A large snake with its mouth open coils around the central trunk. A deer peers from behind the tree, and a monogrammed block sits in the lower right.

Adam and Eve

c. 1514

Hans Baldung

(German, 1484/85–1545)
Germany

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