The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Adam and Eve

1504

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)
Germany, early 16th Century
engraving
Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1958.111
Catalogue raisonné: Meder 1
Location: Not on view

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.
  • {{cite web|title=Adam and Eve|url=false|author=Albrecht Dürer|year=1504|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1958.111