Adam and Eve

1504

Albrecht Dürer

Associated Names
Albrecht Dürer

Artist, German, 1471 - 1528

This black-and-white print shows two nude adults, a man and a woman, in full body view standing side by side. The man is positioned on the left, holding up a branch with a parrot perched on it. A small sign hangs from the branch, featuring the artist's name ("ALBERT DVRER") and a date ("1504"). The man turns to look at the woman on the right, with his other hand stretched towards her and one of his legs slightly bent. His facial features are defined, with a straight nose, a slightly furrowed brow, and curly hair framing his face. The woman on the right has long wavy hair cascading down her back. Her face is turned to the left, towards the man, as she reaches out with one hand. In her hand she holds a piece of round fruit, and a snake coils around a branch from the tree behind her, descending towards her and appearing to take a bite of the fruit. She holds another piece of fruit in her other hand, partially hidden. Both individuals have light skin and are bare except for leaves covering their groins. The background is dense with trees and foliage, including more fruit hanging from the central tree, and there are various animals on the ground behind the couple, such as a cat, an elk, a bull, a mouse, and a rabbit. In the top right corner, a jagged rock mountain top is visible with a goat standing on it.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to plate): 24.8 × 19.2 cm (9 3/4 × 7 9/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.3492

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Meder, no. 1, state ii/iii


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

L. L. Stein?; purchased 1937 by Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], Jenkintown, PA; gift to NGA, 1943.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1965

  • Master Prints from the Rosenwald Collection, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1965, no. 28.

1971

  • Albrecht Dürer: The Early Graphic Works, Princeton University Art Museum, NJ, 1971, no. 1, repro.

1973

  • Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Prints of Northern Europe from the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1973, no. 45.

Bibliography

1932

  • Meder, Joseph. Dürer-Katalog; ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustände, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen. Vienna: Verlag Gilhofer und Ranschburg, 1932. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.

2001

  • Schoch, Rainer, Mattihas Mende, and Anna Scherbaum. Albrecht Dürer: Das druckgraphische Werk. Munich, 2001: vol. 1: no. 39.

Inscriptions

in plate, upper left, on hanging tablet: ALBERT [9 shaped form] / DVRER / NORICVS / FACIEBAT / AD [artist's monogram] 1504; verso, top left, in graphite by a later hand: |42|; verso, top left, in graphite by a later hand: B.1; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: C.12023; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: D [illegible]; verso, lower center, in graphite by a later hand: B1i[superscript]; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: a. 26/25 / JL[F?]; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: C.5281; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: C.F.R [collector's mark?]; verso, bottom left, in graphite by a later hand: K[I?]N: 12.

Watermarks

bull's head (Meder 62)

Wikidata ID

Q64952632

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