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Adam and Eve
Hans Baldung (German, 1484/85–1545)
c. 1514
- Medium
- woodcut
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image: 22.2 x 15.3 cm (8 3/4 x 6 in.); Sheet: 22.2 x 15.3 cm (8 3/4 x 6 in.)
- Culture
- Germany
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Prints
- Credit line
- Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions nudity. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
A student of Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baldung absorbed his master’s ideas for his own version of Adam and Eve. Set within a dark northern European forest, the first couple has already plucked the fruit from the central tree of knowledge. The starring role in the narrative goes to the serpent, whose massive form wraps around the tree, its monstrous head with jaws agape pointed toward Adam. With simplified garden imagery, the image may focus on the question of who bears responsibility for original sin: Adam, Eve, or the devil.
