Adam and Eve (Dürer)

Adam and Eve is the title of two famous works in different media by Albrecht Dürer, a German artist of the Northern Renaissance: an engraving made in 1504, and a pair of oil-on-panel paintings completed in 1507.

[3] His first visited Venice in n 1494 where he studied artists such as Giovanni Bellini (who he met), Andrea Mantegna, Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Leonardo da Vinci, and others.

[5] He summarised his techniques in his Four Books on Human Proportion, and in 1504 completed his first engraving of Adam and Eve (burin on copperplate, 25.1 x 19.8 cm).

[12] Another closely linked study drawing is the Male Nude with Glass and Snake (also called Asclepius) with traces of extensive use of ruler and compass.

[6] As the first man and woman sculpted by God, Adam and Eve serve as the perfect characters to embody the ideal human figure.

Dürer, wielding an astonishing technical sophistication, uses the engraved line work to play with light and dark shadows, illuminating the pale skin and modeling the musculature of each body.

[6] The bright figures stand out in front of the dark background of the forest that (nearly) completely fills the plate, just like oil paint covers a panel all over.

Then he traced the outlines of the figure onto the reverse, where he modeled the actual three-dimensional body with hatchings, and washed a dark background with a brush.

[4] Dürer gained the "silken softness" of her skin through finer graded lines that in part "dissolve in stipples, and [by] add[ing] a third series of curves" which densifies the hatching patterns.

[1][2][4][17] Eve is offered a fruit by the snake and holds in her left hand already one tied to a broken branch with fig leaves that cover her genitals.

[1][2][17] It is a direct reference to the shame that Adam and Eve would experience after the Fall, as described in Genesis 3:7: "And the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

[18] The famous Great Piece of Turf for example, the Young Hare, and the Wing of a Blue Roller are from that time, but also a drawing of a parrot, that very much resembles the one in the engraving.

[19] Moreover, it is known through his diary writings that Dürer saw and even collected exotic items from the East (the Orient), as well as the Americas while on trips to both Italy and Flanders.

[20] Some of these marvelous objects included a large fishbone, porcelain dishes from China, while other items like cloths (some made out of silk), feathers, an ivory salt-cellar came from "Calicut," which in the Renaissance was a catch-all term that could reference India, Africa or the Americas, indicating a geographical misunderstanding of the wider world.

"[1] Despite Dürer's fascination with Italian art, this inscription demonstrates his pride regarding his Northern heritage, clearly identifying his hometown as the German city of Nuremberg (Noricus in Latin).

[6] Dürer's treatment of the theme followed in 1510 with a light but intimate ink drawing, where Adam and Eve are unusually shown from behind, turned away from the viewer, embracing each other.

The figure of Eve with her crossed legs relates to the images of the Fall and the Expulsion from Paradise featured in the Small Passion.

After the creation of the engraving of 1504, Dürer revisited the subject of Adam and Eve after a second visit to Italy, when he spent most of his time in Venice to further study Italian Renaissance paintings.

[3][23] During his two years in Venice, from 1505 until 1507, Dürer analyzed various techniques and famous works of art, developing his use of classical Italian contrapposto.

[17][24] Eve rests her hand above a branch where a cartellino hangs with Latin writing that reads,"Albertus durer alemanus faciebat post virginis partum 1507," ("Albrecht Dürer, upper German, made this 1507 years after the Virgin's offspring.

[3] While the engraving of 1504 communicates the story of the Fall of Man, the oil painting is primarily focused on the individual figures of Adam and Eve, emphasized by the lack of intricate background and symbolism.

[25] Over time, multiple attempts at restoration led to the addition of layers of new paint and oxidized varnish, which in turn distorted the original image.

[26] In turn, the Nuremberg City Council gifted them to Emperor Rudolph II who displayed them in his new gallery room at Prague Castle.

[26] During the Thirty Years' War when the Sweeds stormed Nuremberg in 1648 during the Battle of Prague[26] their armies plundered the castle and moved the panels to Stockholm where they entered the collection of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.

[26] The works moved next to The Royal Palace of Madrid, but were considered "nudes" so were relocated and displayed in a separate room known as the "Vaults of Titian.

[26] In 1762, if not for the persuasion of Anton Raphael Mengs, King Charles III of Spain's court painter, they would have been destroyed as they viewed the nudity as "indecent".