Adam and Eve

Active as a painter, draftsman, and printmaker, Albrecht Dürer was an entrepreneur and a man of great intellectual curiosity, who studied physiognomy, fortifications, engineering theories, and mathematical problems. He wrote and illustrated treatises on perspective and anatomy, explored ideal proportions, and struggled to describe the actions of the human body; all this information he integrated into his art. Dürer's intense observation of the human and natural world is as evident in his simple depictions of animals and plants as in his most complex allegorical compositions. His work as a printmaker-he executed more than 250 engravings, woodcuts, drypoints, and etchings-was enormously influential and spread his name and reputation throughout Europe.

Dürer's masterful engraving, The Fall of Man, was made in 1504, the year before he made his second trip to Italy. While the frontal and somewhat static figures of Adam and Eve were undoubtedly influenced by classical sculpture, Dürer's composition is his own invention. His deep preoccupation with understanding how the image was evolving and how to establish a dark background from which lighter figures would emerge was developed by printing trial impressions. A number of proofs of this engraving are extant, including one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They demonstrate how the artist worked on the background first and saved the figures for last. Preparatory drawings, including one of Adam and Eve, in the Morgan Library & Museum, show the care with which Dürer developed every detail of human and animal form. The collection includes another impression of this work, given to the AMAM in 2006 by Ken and Linda Preston.

The AMAM's rich holdings of ninety-four Dürer prints are nearly all gifts of the Max Kade Foundation and provide Oberlin students with a superlative resource for study, teaching, and research.