Picture History

Dürer made these panels upon returning from his second trip to Italy in 1505. Both works constitute an effort to synthesize what he had learned there, in search of a balance between Italian and Germanic approaches that would permit the ideal perfection of the human body. Thus, the choice of a biblical subject here is mere pretext. Dürer's knowledge of the classical nude is extensive, while the exactitude of his lines reveals the hand of an artist rooted in the Northern tradition.

The growing Italian influence is visible in the monumental grandeur of his figures, while his Germanic orientation is clear in the colors, the precise details, and a naturalist taste that is expressionist in nature. All this is further enlivened by his brilliant drawer's mind.

The solidity of the two bodies, not only with Eve's Gothic curves (using the prototype of a Germanic Venus), but also with Adam's fascinated expression (depicted with his mouth open in a personification of desire) are outstanding aspects of these two impressive nudes, the first life-size ones in all of Northern painting. Dürer nuances the differences between the two bodies, using a tan color for the man's figure and a pinkish-white tone for the feminine figure. He conceives them as isolated and rather than directly alluding to the fall of Adam and the creation of Original Sin, these important moments are subtly symbolized in the characters´ expressions and in the motives that accompany them.

Dürer set out his studies and conclusions in a treatise on the proportions of the human body and perspective. This was a fundamental text for successive generations of Northern artists.

This was a present from Queen Christine of Sweden to Felipe IV.