Adam and Eve

Description

In Hans Baldung’s later rendition of Adam and Eve the reduction of setting—in which the Garden of Eden is reduced to a tree—brings the focus to the bodies of Adam and Eve and their physical interaction and desire. Baldung even eliminated the serpent, instead introducing a sinister element in the near-predatory Adam, cast in deep shadow as if emerging from the darkness. With such spare imagery overall, it is the audience, by looking, that is implicated in the first couple’s original sin and guilt.

Provenance

(C.G. Boerner, LLC, New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (?–1966); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 3, 1966–)

Adam and Eve

Hans Baldung

1519

Accession Number

1966.6

Medium

woodcut

Dimensions

Image: 25.2 x 9.7 cm (9 15/16 x 3 13/16 in.); Sheet: 25.2 x 9.7 cm (9 15/16 x 3 13/16 in.)

Classification

Print

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust