Abraham Entertaining the Angels by Rembrandt van Rijn

Adam and Eve by Rembrandt van Rijn
Rembrandt van Rijn, Adam and Eve, 1638, etching, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection 1943.3.7102

Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, engraving, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Horace Gallatin 1949.1.18

Expressive, rapidly drawn, rich and varied lines are characteristic of Rembrandt's etching style. A comparison between Rembrandt's etched Adam and Eve and Albrecht Dürer's engraved version of the same subject reveals some of the differences in these printmaking techniques.

Like Rembrandt, the German artist Albrecht Dürer was a brilliant printmaker. He presents Adam and Eve as clearly drawn, well-modeled figures against a curtain of trees, an arcadian wooded setting. The clean, precise lines of this engraving, made in 1504, perfectly suit the classical ideals of the Renaissance: clarity, harmony, and order.