Adam and Eve
Not on view
With its large size and intricate design, Adam and Eve is one of his D�rer�s masterpieces of engraving. Produced in 1504, about a decade after his first trip to northern Italy from 1494�1495, it shows D�rer�s exposure to Italian art. Adam�s posture and proportions recall the so-called Apollo Belvedere, a sculpture unearthed in Rome in 1489. Heralded as the supreme model of male beauty, within a decade of its discovery images of the sculpture were widely disseminated among artistic communities in Renaissance Italy. Although D�rer never visited Rome and could not have actually seen the sculpture, he must have been aware of it through a drawing seen during his first Italian sojourn. His appreciation for the principles of Renaissance art is also apparent in the musculature of Adam�s torso which is rendered using dots and flecks created by the burin, an Italian engraving style. In contrast, the dense and dark background is rendered in a markedly northern Gothic style.
- Artist
- Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
- Title
- Adam and Eve
- Date
- 1504
- Object Type
- Prints
- Medium
- Engraving
- Dimensions
- 9 15/16 x 7 11/16 in. (25.3 x 19.6 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Thomas Carr Howe, Jr.
- Accession Number
- 1953.42