Adam and Eve in Paradise

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–)

Adam and Eve in Paradise

Lucas Cranach

1509

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

Print

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Ralph King