Adam and Eve

This print is one of Dürer’s most well-known engravings. Shown in the Garden of Eden from which they would later be expelled, Adam and Eve are surrounded by a plethora of wildlife and foliage imbued with symbolic meaning. In his right hand, Adam holds a branch from the Tree of Life, while Eve clasps one from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The cat, bull, rabbit, and elk that appear amid the thicket of trees signify the four human temperaments – the choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine, and melancholic – that were thrown out of equilibrium after the Fall.

Though even the small details of this engraving carry symbolic importance, the focus of the composition remains on the figures of Adam and Eve, whose bodies dominate the foreground. The central place allotted to their bodies betrays Dürer's keen interest in classical proportion, which he first studied under the aegis of the Venetian painter Jacopo de' Barbari (ca. 1460/70 - before 1516). Dürer's juxtaposition of Adam and Eve’s idealized bodies with symbolic references to their eventual fall from innocence adds a compelling layer of tension to this engraving.