Description
Lucas Cranach’s Eden shows the first couple just prior to tasting the forbidden fruit. Adam holds one fruit, and Eve plucks a second from the tree of knowledge. The composition is packed with stags, horses, sheep, and a lion, ram, and boar. Some of these are associated with human temperaments (personality types), but the many stags suggest more hunting ground than significant allegory. Cranach’s patron, Frederick, Elector of Saxony (1463–1525), whose coats of arms hang from the tree, was an avid hunter whose hunting grounds were perhaps a kind of paradise for him.
Provenance
Ralph King [1855–1926], Cleveland, OH, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (?–1925); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 12, 1925–)
Accession Number
1925.115
Medium
woodcut
Dimensions
Image: 33.5 x 23 cm (13 3/16 x 9 1/16 in.); Sheet: 33.5 x 23 cm (13 3/16 x 9 1/16 in.)
Classification
Credit Line
Gift of Ralph King