The Fall of Man (Adam and Eve)

In the sixteenth century, prints increasingly were appreciated as works of art in their own right, and Dürer’s engravings provided him with a considerable income. On one level, his Adam and Eve, produced shortly after his return from Italy, was intended to present the perfect human body as represented in the ideals of the Italian Renaissance. On another level, the image is dense with late-medieval symbolism. For example, the animals in the foreground represent characteristics of the four “humors”—melancholy (the elk), sensuality (the rabbit), cruelty (the cat), and sluggishness (the ox). It was believed that these “humors” had been in perfect equilibrium within the human body until Adam ate the forbidden fruit. Afterwards, this balance was destroyed, and individual men and women were controlled by different “humors,” resulting in defects of character and in sin, illness, and death.  The strength of the engraved lines in this early impression, plus its fine state of preservation, emphasize sculptural qualities, plays of light, and a variety of textures.

Dürer's "Adam and Eve" presents human bodies according to the ideals of the Italian Renaissance. The image is also dense with late-medieval symbolism. The animals in the foreground represent characteristics of the four "humors": melancholy (the elk), sensuality (the rabbit), cruelty (the cat), and sluggishness (the ox). It was believed that these "humors" had been in perfect equilibrium within the human body until Adam ate the forbidden fruit.