Adam and Eve

On this day in 1528, Albrecht Dürer, the genius of the Northern Renaissance, died in Nuremberg in Germany. He was a brilliant painter, draftsman, and writer, though his first and probably greatest artistic impact was in the medium of printmaking. Today we present one of his drawings, which later was transferred into a print and painting.

As you can see, he achieved the classically proportioned figures of the Adam and Eve print through a significant amount of preliminary effort. This sheet shows the complexity of his preparatory trials. He joined two pieces of paper, a figure on each, and added a third vertical strip down the middle to create the appropriate distance between them. He then applied brown wash to unify the entire composition. Of the many drawings produced in connection with the print, this work is the only one to include both the male and female figures. That they each hold an apple, the temptation that led to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, reveals Dürer's willingness to experiment as he resolved the composition. In the final print, he decided to place the apple only in Eve's hand.

P.S. Another Renaissance master known for depicting Adam and Eve was Lucas Cranach. Here you can play the seven errors game with Cranach's paintings!  :-D