Adam and Eve in Paradise

Lucas Cranach the elder
Germany
1472 – 1553

Adam and Eve in Paradise
1509
woodcut on paper
Currently on display, Gallery 8
Place made
Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Medium
woodcut on paper
State
only state
Dimensions
33.5 x 24.0 cm (image)
34.5 x 24.5 cm (sheet)
Credit line
N. F. Rochlin Bequest Fund 2023
Accession number
20235G113
Signature and date
Signed and dated in block top c. "LC/1509 ['9' in reverse]".
Provenance
Friedrich August II, King of Saxony (1797-1854), Wittenberg, Germany (collector’s stamp on work Lugt 971); purchased by Hollstein at ventes Schwatrzenberg, Leipzig in 1826 [according to his catalogue]; R.E. Lewis and Daughter Original Prints, San Francisco, ?-2003; purchased by Sandra Sofris, San Francisco, 2003; purchased by David Tunick Fine Art, New York, 2021
Catalogue raisonne
Hollstein 1
Collection area
European prints
Image credit
Photo: Stewart Adams

  • WALL LABEL: Adam and Eve in Paradise, 1509

     

    The German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder was court painter to Friedrich the Wise and to successive Electors of Saxony from 1505. The great religious reformer Martin Luther was protected by Friedrich the Wise in 1521, after being declared an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor, and Cranach and Luther became friends, with Cranach painting a portrait of Luther in 1529. During Cranach’s long career at the court, he attained recognition for his paintings and prints, these encompassing a wide range of themes, from religious to mythological and secular subjects.

     

    Cranach’s woodcut illustrations were closely linked to the development of the printed book in the mid-fifteenth century, with printing presses flourishing in Nuremberg, Germany, and Venice, Italy. Cranach’s initial interest in the woodcut medium may have been inspired by the remarkable prints of his contemporary Albrecht Dürer, as well as by the Venetian painter–printmaker Jacopo de Barberi, who also served at the court.

     

    Tansy Curtin, Curator of International Art Pre-1980

  • Reimagining the Renaissance

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