Adam and Eve
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 8.2 × 5.7 cm (3 1/4 × 2 1/4 in.); Sheet: 8.4 × 5.8 cm (3 5/16 × 2 5/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
80764
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
For disobeying God’s orders and eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve received the punishment of mortality, hard work, and pain. A skeleton, an obvious symbol of death, forms the trunk of the fatal tree, and the evil serpent winds its way through the skeleton’s hollow torso. Sebald Beham’s sensuous intertwining of the nudes, snake, and skeleton blatantly marks this depiction as a sexual awakening. While Adam is entirely naked, the gesture of Eve’s free hand...
About the Artist
Hans Sebald Beham · 1500–1550
Sebald Beham (1500-1550), often called Hans Sebald Beham, was a German painter and printmaker born in Nuremberg. He stands as the most important figure among the Kleinmeister (Little Masters), a group of German artists who created remarkably detailed prints on a diminutive scale in the generation following Albrecht Dürer. Beham's significance lies in his technical virtuosity and unprecedented pro...