''Adam'' is an

Italian Renaissance sculpture Italian Renaissance sculpture was an important part of the art of the Italian Renaissance, in the early stages arguably representing the leading edge. The example of Ancient Roman sculpture hung very heavily over it, both in terms of style and t ...

of c.1490–1495, a marble statue by

Tullio Lombardo Tullio Lombardo (c. 1455 – November 17, 1532), also known as Tullio Solari, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor. He was the brother of Antonio Lombardo and son of Pietro Lombardo. The Lombardo family worked together to sculpt famous Catholic ...

, now in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, which bought it in 1936. It is of prime importance as the first lifesize nude marble sculpture since antiquity, though

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), known mononymously as Donatello (; ), was an Italian Renaissance sculpture, Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sc ...

's famous bronze ''

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

'' had preceded it by several decades.

Use as funerary art

The sculpture was made as one of several subsidiary figures, including a lost companion statue of Eve, for the tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin (d. 1478), which was later reconfigured.

Ownership

Previously it had passed through the Vendramin-Calergi family, remaining in the Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

when the

Duchess of Berry Duke of Berry () or Duchess of Berry () was a title in the Peerage of France. The Berry, France, Duchy of Berry, centred on Bourges, was originally created as an appanage for junior members of the House of France, French royal family and was fre ...

bought the palazzo in 1844. She then sold it to Henri Dieudonné d'Artois, comte de Chambord in 1865. It was then recorded as owned by Princess Beatrix de Bourbon-Massimo before being acquired by Henry Pereire sometime after 1921, then passed to his widow and through various auction houses before being acquired by its present owner.

Breaking of the statue and restoration

On the evening of October 6, 2002, the statue fell to the floor of the Vélez Blanco patio and broke into 28 larger pieces and hundreds of small fragments. An investigation theorized the fall was because the wooden pedestal the sculpture was displayed on proved inadequate for the weight of the marble, and gave way. After more than a decade of restoration, ''Adam'' was put back on display at the museum in 2014. Museum officials assert that their process for restoring the sculpture helped create a new model for the conservation of large sculptures.Ricardelli, Carolyn et al
"The Treatment of Tullio Lombardo's Adam: A New Approach to the Conservation of Monumental Marble Sculpture"
''Metropolitan Museum Journal'' 49,(2014): 48–116.

References

{{reflist 1490s sculptures Sculptures by Tullio Lombardo Sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Sculptures of Adam and Eve Nude sculptures in New York (state) Henri, Count of Chambord