Artwork Page for Adam and Eve

Details / Information for Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve

1504

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)
Culture
Germany, early 16th Century
Medium
engraving
Credit Line
Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1958.111
Catalogue raisonné
Meder 1
State
III/III
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Dürer based Adam’s pose on the Apollo Belvedere, a Roman sculpture discovered in Italy during the late 1400s. He constructed the idealized bodies of Adam and Eve using geometry and a mathematical system of proportion loosely derived from ancient models. For Dürer, who mostly depicted Christian subjects, the creation of theoretically perfect human bodies was a pathway to comprehending the divine. He thus represented Adam and Eve as he understood them in both theological and artistic terms: moments before tasting the forbidden fruit, they are still uncorrupted by sin and death, existing in a state of faultless beauty.
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 light skin tones, defined muscles, and wavy hair. Adam holds a branch with a plaque; Eve reaches for fruit from a snake coiled around a central tree, holding another behind her back. Leaves cover their genitals. Detailed animals gather in the dark background and foreground amidst dense trees.

Adam and Eve

1504

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)
Germany, early 16th Century

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