''Adam and Eve'' is a pair of paintings by German Renaissance master

Lucas Cranach the Elder Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is kno ...

, dating from 1528,As it can be seen in Adam's panel. housed in the Uffizi, Florence, Italy. There are other paintings by the same artist with the same title, depicting the subjects either together in a double portrait or separately in a pair of portraits, for instance at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Courtauld Gallery in London, the

Museum der bildenden Künste The Museum der bildenden Künste (German: "Museum of Fine Arts") is a museum in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It covers artworks from the Late Middle Ages to Modernity. History Museum Foundation and First Museum The museum dates back to the fo ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The two biblical ancestors are portrayed, in two different panels, on a dark background, standing on a barely visible ground. Both hold two small branches which cover their sexual organs. Eve holds the traditional apple, with the serpent coming to her from above from the

tree of the knowledge of good and evil In Judaism and Christianity, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ( he, עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע, ʿêṣ had-daʿaṯ ṭōḇ wā-rāʿ, label= Tiberian Hebrew, ) is one of two specific trees in the story of the Garden ...

. Adam is shown scratching the right crown part of his scalp.

History

The work was part of the Tuscan Grand Dukes' collections since as early as 1688, and has been included in the Uffizi since the beginning of the 18th century. Filippo Baldinucci attributed it to Albrecht Dürer, until the inventory of 1784 assigned it to Cranach. The subject continues Dürer's anatomy studies, which had culminated in his large ''

Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...

'' panels now in the Museo del Prado. These were the first full-size nudes painted by a German artist. During his stay in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Cranach had frequented some groups of humanists who were close to Dürer, and from there he was inspired to do a first, smaller version of the theme of

in 1510, currently housed at the

National Museum in Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), popularly abbreviated as MNW, is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art ( Eg ...

In popular culture

The pair of Adam and Eve paintings from the Kunsthistorisches Museum were featured in the German television series ''

Dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...

'', where they are displayed in the headquarters of the cult Erit Lux.

Gallery

Other versions of Adam and Eve by the artist include: File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Adam und Eva (Gemäldepaar), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Besançon.jpg, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Besançon, 1508-1510 File:Cranach_the_Elder_Adam_and_Eve.jpg,

National Museum, Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), popularly abbreviated as MNW, is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art ( Eg ...

, 1510 File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Der Sündenfall (KHM Vienna).jpg, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, File:Adam and Eve (UK CIA P-1947-LF-77).jpg, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1526 File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Adam und Eva (Gemäldepaar), Norton Simon Museum.jpg,

Diptych A diptych (; from the Greek δίπτυχον, ''di'' "two" + '' ptychē'' "fold") is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world w ...

in the

Norton Simon Museum The Norton Simon Museum is an art museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds. Overview The Norton Si ...

, Pasadena, File:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. - Adam and Eve - WGA05622.jpg ,

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (, ''Dresden State Art Collections'') is a cultural institution in Dresden, Germany, owned by the State of Saxony. It is one of the most renowned and oldest museum institutions in the world, originating from the ...

, Dresden, 1531 File:Cranach, Lucas (I) - Adam u Eva - Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig.jpg,

, Leipzig, 1533 File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Adam und Eva (Gemäldepaar), Art Institute of Chicago.jpg, Art Institute of Chicago, File:Lucas_Cranach_d._Ä._-_Adam_and_Eve_-_WGA05623.jpg,

Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (Dutch: ''Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen'', ''KMSKA'') is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium, founded in 1810, that houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth t ...

, 1500-1550 File:Lucas_Cranach_the_Elder_-_Adam_and_Eve_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg,

National Gallery Prague The National Gallery Prague ( cz, Národní galerie Praha, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Cze ...

, c.1538

Footnotes

Sources

* {{Authority control 1528 paintings Paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder Paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Uffizi Diptychs Cranach Nude art Snakes in art