Adam and Eve (The fall of man)

Details

Bartsch 1; Meder 1 III b (from d); Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 39 III b (from III d).

Description

Excellent, high contrast print showing the gap in the bark under Adam’s left arm. With this depiction, Dürer created a quintessential work of the Renaissance. He designed the engraving in extensive studies to demonstrate the ideal human image according to Vitruvius’s theory of proportions. He created numerous drawings of standing female nudes and two of his most important engravings depict this subject, “Nemesis” (Meder 72) and “Adam and Eve”. The unusually high number of printed versions and preliminary drawings for Dürer documents the special care that the artist took with this design. His self-confident Latin signature “Albrecht Dürer of Nuremberg did this in 1504” occupies a special position in the graphic work due to its detail. – Paper with minor foxmarks. Smoothed crease, not visible on recto, on the left edge. A small retouched area in Adam’s neck. Slight thinning of the paper on the reverse on Eve’s right calf. The upper right corner carefully reattached. A minute hole in the treestump on the left. With traces and remnants of former mounting on the reverse, otherwise in good condition.