Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve

Painting on wood

Medium

Painting on wood

[http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/collections/paintings/renaissance/cranach.shtml] (accessed 26.04.2012)

Maple wood

[Exhib. Cat. Frankfurt 2007, 366]
[C. Campbell, Exhib. Cat. London 2007, 65]

''Adam and Eve' brilliantly combines devotional meaning with pictorial elegance and invention.

The scene is set in a forest clearing where Eve stands before the Tree of Knowledge, caught in the act of handing an apple to a bewildered Adam. Entwined in the tree's branches above, the serpent looks on

''Adam and Eve' brilliantly combines devotional meaning with pictorial elegance and invention.

The scene is set in a forest clearing where Eve stands before the Tree of Knowledge, caught in the act of handing an apple to a bewildered Adam. Entwined in the tree's branches above, the serpent looks on as Adam succumbs to temptation.

A rich menagerie of birds and animals - a stag, a hind, a sheep, a roe-buck with its mate, a lion, a wild boar and a horse, and partridges, a stork and a heron - completes this seductive vision of Paradise. On the tree-trunk are the date 1526 and the bat-winged serpent which formed part of Cranach's coat of arms.

The painting is particularly admired for its treatment of the human figure and for the profusion of finely painted details, including animals and vegetation. Cranach delights in capturing details such as the roe-buck catching its reflection in the foreground pool of water.'

[http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/collections/paintings/renaissance/cranach.shtml] (accessed 26.04.2012)

Attribution
Lucas Cranach der Ältere

Attribution

Lucas Cranach der Ältere

[http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/collections/paintings/renaissance/cranach.shtml] (accessed 26.04.2012)

Production date
1526

Production date

1526

[dated]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 117 x 80 cm

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 117 x 80 cm

  • [www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/gallery/f9210e05.html] (accessed 26.04.2012)

  • Dimensions of support: 117.1 x 80.8 cm

  • [Exhib. Cat. London 2007, 65]

  • Dimensions including frame: 136.4 x 99.8 x 13 cm

  • [www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/gallery/f9210e05.html] (accessed 26.04.2012)

Signature / Dating

Artist's insignia on the tree trunk: winged serpent with elevated wing, facing left and dated '1526'; in yellow paint

Signature / Dating

  • Artist's insignia on the tree trunk: winged serpent with elevated wing, facing left and dated '1526'; in yellow paint

Owner
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Repository
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Location
London
CDA ID
UK_CIA_P-1947-LF-77
FR (1978) Nr.
FR191
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/UK_CIA_P-1947-LF-77/

Provenance

  • possibly in the Habich Collection, Kassel before 1906
    [Exhib. Cat. Frankfurt 2007, 366]

  • purchased in Kassel by Harold Woodbury Parsons for Edward Perry Warren, Lewes House, East Sussex, 1906

  • Warren sale, Lewes House (Gorringe of Lewes), 22-24 October 1929, lot 546

  • bought by J. R. Thomas (Georgian Galleries, London)

  • sold to Lord Lee of Fareham, Richmond
    [Exhib. Cat. London 2007, 65]

  • Lee of Fareham, Arthur Hamilton (1st Viscount); bequest; 1947
    P.1947.LF.77
    [www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/gallery/f9210e05.html] (accessed 26.04.2012)

Exhibitions

London 2007
London 2008

Literature

Reference on page Catalogue Number Figure / Plate
Hermann-Fiore 2010 104
AuthorKristina Hermann-Fiore
TitleVenere e Cupido che ruba il favo die miele. Un grande dipinto di Lucas Cranach in Galleria Borghese; Venus with Cupid the Honey Thief. A Great Painting by Lucas Cranach in the Borghese Gallery
Publicationin Anna Coliva, Bernhard Aikema, eds., Cranach l'altro rinascimento, a different Renaissance, Exhib. Cat. Rome
Place of PublicationMilan
Year of Publication2010
Pages98 - 113
Heydenreich 2010 A 75 67i
AuthorGunnar Heydenreich
TitleReisende Bilder im Wandel
Publicationin Guido Messling, ed., Die Welt des Lucas Cranach. Ein Künstler im Zeitalter von Dürer, Tizian und Metsys, Exhib. Cat. Brussels
Place of PublicationBrussels
Year of Publication2010
Pages66-79
Buck 2007
AuthorStephanie Buck
TitleFraming the image. Lucas Cranach's 'Adam and Eve' and book illustration
Publicationin Caroline Campbell, ed., Temptation in Eden. Lucas Cranach's Adam and Eve, Exhib. Cat. London
Place of PublicationLondon
Year of Publication2007
Evans 2007 58, 61 (fn. 104)
AuthorMark Evans
Title"Die Italiener, sonst so ruhmsüchtig, bieten Dir die Hand": Lucas Cranach und die Kunst des Humanismus
Publicationin Bodo Brinkmann, ed., Cranach der Ältere, Exhib. Cat. Frankfurt
Place of PublicationOstfildern
Year of Publication2007
Pages49-61
Exhib. Cat. Frankfurt 2007 366-367 119 p. 367
EditorBodo Brinkmann
TitleCranach der Ältere, [Frankfurt, Städel Museum, 23 Nov 2007 - 17 Feb 2008]
Place of PublicationOstfildern
Year of Publication2007
Exhib. Cat. London 2007 65-79 No. 1
EditorCaroline Campbell
TitleTemptation in Eden. Lucas Cranach's Adam and Eve , [London, Courtauld Institute Gallery]
Place of PublicationLondon
Year of Publication2007
Heydenreich 2007 A 45, 212, 213, 293, 295
AuthorGunnar Heydenreich
TitleLucas Cranach the Elder
Place of PublicationAmsterdam
Year of Publication2007
Link https://lucascranach.org/application/files/6116/2097/3099/Heydenreich_2007_Lucas_Cranach_the_Elder.pdf
Heydenreich 2007 C 28-33
AuthorGunnar Heydenreich
TitleAdam and Eve in the Making
Publicationin Caroline Campbell, ed., Temptation in Eden. Lucas Cranach's Adam and Eve, London, The Courtauld Institute of Art
Place of PublicationLondon
Year of Publication2007
Pages18 - 33
Koepplin 2007 B 68, 70 11
AuthorDieter Koepplin
TitleCranachs Bilder der Caritas im theologischen und humanistischen Geiste Luthers und Melanchthons
Publicationin Bodo Brinkmann, ed., Cranach der Ältere [Exhib. Cat. Frankfurt]
Place of PublicationOstfildern
Year of Publication2007
Pages63-79
Chamonikola 2005 B 25 (English version 11)
AuthorKaliopi Chamonikola
TitleLucas Cranach a ceské zeme/ Lucas Cranach and the Czech Lands
Publicationin Kaliopi Chamonikola, ed., Pod znamením okrídleného hada. Lucas Cranach a ceské zeme, Under the winged Serpent, Lucas Cranach and the Czech Lands, Exhib. Prague 2005
Place of PublicationPrague
Year of Publication2005
Pages13-33 (6-15)
Exhib. Cat. Chemnitz 2005 216 Fn. 24 003 (under)
EditorHarald Marx, Karin Kolb, Ingrid Mössinger
TitleCranach Anlässlich der Ausstellung Cranach vom 13. November 2005 bis 12. März 2006 in den Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. Eine Ausstellung in Kooperation mit der Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Place of PublicationCologne
Year of Publication2005
Schoen 2001 196, Fn. 76
AuthorChristian Schoen
TitleAlbrecht Dürer: Adam und Eva. Die Gemälde, ihre Geschichte und Rezeption bei Lucas Cranach d.Ä. und Hans Baldung Grien
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication2001
Heydenreich 1998 A 184
AuthorGunnar Heydenreich
TitleHerstellung, Grundierung und Rahmung der Holzbildträger in den Werkstätten Lucas Cranachs d.Ä.
Publicationin Ingo Sandner, Wartburg-Stiftung Eisenach and Fachhochschule Köln, eds., Unsichtbare Meisterzeichnungen auf dem Malgrund. Cranach und seine Zeitgenossen, Exhib. Cat. Eisenach
Place of PublicationRegensburg
Year of Publication1998
Pages181-200
Sox 1995 20-21 Fig. 12
AuthorD. Sox
Title'Harold Woodbury Parsons, "Marchand amateur"'
JournalApollo
Issue141
Year of Publication1995
Pages19-24
Cat. Toronto 1985 365
EditorS. D. Campbell
TitleThe Malcove Collection. A Catalogue of the Objects in the Lillian Malcove Collection of the University of Toronto
Place of PublicationToronto, Buffalo, London
Year of Publication1985
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979 191
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
EditorG. Schwartz
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBasel, Boston, Stuttgart
Year of Publication1979
Clark 1977 71 Fig. 71
AuthorKenneth Clark
TitleAnimals and Men
Place of PublicationLondon
Year of Publication1977
Exhib. Cat. Basel 1974/1976 500, 548 409 (u.)
AuthorDieter Koepplin, Tilman Falk
TitleLukas Cranach. Gemälde, Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik
Volume1, 2
Place of PublicationBasel, Stuttgart
Year of Publication1974
Link http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-diglit-104522
Ruhmer 1963 84 pl. 22
AuthorEberhard Ruhmer
TitleCranach
Place of PublicationCologne
Year of Publication1963
  • Adam and Eve, 1526

Images

Compare images
  • overall
  • overall
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  • overall
  • x_radiograph
  • x_radiograph
  • detail
  • detail
  • detail
  • analysis
  • analysis
  • analysis
  • analysis
  • analysis
  • analysis

Technical studies

2007Technical examination / Scientific analysis

Support

- maple

- the panel is composed of six vertical members

[C. Campbell, Exhib. Cat. London 2007, 65]

2007Technical examination / Scientific analysis

Support

- it has a rebate along the edges

[Heydenreich 2007 C, 29]

Ground and Imprimatura

- there is a priming barb present and there are incised lines along the barb

[Heydenreich 2007 C, 29]

Underdrawing

‘Drawing with a pointed brush and black pigment in a liquid medium on the ground, Cranach fixed the outlines of figures and animals of the Courtauld painting with only a few strokes. For example, Eve’s head was initially positioned slightly further to the right. Occasionally it seems that shadows were indicated with washes of diluted ink or paint. The infra-red reflectogram reveals that the back of the sheep was modelled with shades of grey before being covered with the flesh paint of Adam’s right leg.’

[Heydenreich 2007 C, 29, 30]

Paint Layers and Gilding

‘In the Courtauld ‘Adam and Eve’ panel, as in many others, we find several traces of paint on the bare wood outside the barb. This suggests that the panel and the frame were separated again after priming. The presence and appearance of the paint suggest in fact the use of a temporary frame, and this hypothesis is further supported by incisions in the ground along the barb and by black painted borders.’

[Heydenreich 2007 C, 29]

‘The essential pigments in the flesh paints are lead white, vermilion, vegetable-derived carbon black, iron oxide and brown organic colorant. Cool lights or half shadows occasionally contain azurite (significant amounts of calcium salts have been found in almost all flesh paints examined to date.) Cranach differentiated the bodies and faces within his paintings by varying pigment combinations, layer sequences and brushwork. Each form was built individually in several layers, evident in alternating and overlapping layers of paint. In some sections the background covers flesh tints, while in others the flesh paint encroaches on the background. This confirms Cranach’s tendency to develop each painting as a whole, often switching from one detail to another, but not completing individual parts one after another. For example, in leaving reserves for the foliage of a tree (verdigris, carbon black) when applying paint for the sky (lead white, azurite, lead-tin yellow), he calculated not only the final visual result but also the potential savings of time and pigment. Early works commonly left eyes omitted until after the flesh was modelled, at which point eyeballs were added in stereotypical fashion with lead white and blue pigment. When creating reflected light in the pupils, Cranach relied not only on observations from nature, but also on common formulae. There is no other explanation for the light in Eve’s eyes in the Courtauld painting, which is divided into four and thus reflects the mullion and transom of a window, although the figures are depicted in a landscape. A similar formula was used in several earlier and later works.’

[Heydenreich 2007 C, 30]

2007Technical Examination

Support

- Standard format ‘E’ according to Heydenreich

[Heydenreich 2007 A, 45]

Paint Layers and Gilding

‘[...] here most of the animals have been painted on a white ground and laid out before the green meadow was painted. Only the stork, the horse and a grey heron have been painted upon the green ground, presumably to fill up empty space.’

[Heydenreich 2007 A, 213, 293]

2007Technical examination / Scientific analysis

Support

- it has a rebate along the edges

[Heydenreich 2007 C, 29]

Ground and Imprimatura

- there is a priming barb present and there are incised lines along the barb

[Heydenreich 2007 C, 29]

Underdrawing

‘Drawing with a pointed brush and black pigment in a liquid medium on the ground, Cranach fixed the outlines of figures and animals of the Courtauld painting with only a few strokes. For example, Eve’s head was initially positioned slightly further to the right. Occasionally it seems that shadows were indicated with washes of diluted ink or paint. The infra-red reflectogram reveals that the back of the sheep was modelled with shades of grey before being covered with the flesh paint of Adam’s right leg.’

[Heydenreich 2007 C, 29, 30]

Paint Layers and Gilding

‘In the Courtauld ‘Adam and Eve’ panel, as in many others, we find several traces of paint on the bare wood outside the barb. This suggests that the panel and the frame were separated again after priming. The presence and appearance of the paint suggest in fact the use of a temporary frame, and this hypothesis is further supported by incisions in the ground along the barb and by black painted borders.’

[Heydenreich 2007 C, 29]

‘The essential pigments in the flesh paints are lead white, vermilion, vegetable-derived carbon black, iron oxide and brown organic colorant. Cool lights or half shadows occasionally contain azurite (significant amounts of calcium salts have been found in almost all flesh paints examined to date.) Cranach differentiated the bodies and faces within his paintings by varying pigment combinations, layer sequences and brushwork. Each form was built individually in several layers, evident in alternating and overlapping layers of paint. In some sections the background covers flesh tints, while in others the flesh paint encroaches on the background. This confirms Cranach’s tendency to develop each painting as a whole, often switching from one detail to another, but not completing individual parts one after another. For example, in leaving reserves for the foliage of a tree (verdigris, carbon black) when applying paint for the sky (lead white, azurite, lead-tin yellow), he calculated not only the final visual result but also the potential savings of time and pigment. Early works commonly left eyes omitted until after the flesh was modelled, at which point eyeballs were added in stereotypical fashion with lead white and blue pigment. When creating reflected light in the pupils, Cranach relied not only on observations from nature, but also on common formulae. There is no other explanation for the light in Eve’s eyes in the Courtauld painting, which is divided into four and thus reflects the mullion and transom of a window, although the figures are depicted in a landscape. A similar formula was used in several earlier and later works.’

[Heydenreich 2007 C, 30]

2000Technical examination / Scientific analysis

  • Micro-sampling / cross-sections
  • analysis

CDA ID/Inventory Number: UK_CIA_P-1947-LF-77

Cross-section number: 2009

Paint description: flesh paint

Sample location: Eve's flesh from knee

Examination methods: microscopy, SEM-EDX

Observations:

1. pale layer of flesh paint (EDX: Pb, Ca, Hg, Si lead white, vermilion, calcium salts, carbon black)

0. white layer > ground

  • examined by Gunnar Heydenreich
  • examined by Aviva Burnstock

2000Technical examination / Scientific analysis

  • Micro-sampling / cross-sections
  • analysis

CDA ID/Inventory Number: UK_CIA_P-1947-LF-77

Cross-section number: 2011

Paint description: dark flesh paint

Sample location: Adam's arm

Examination methods: microscopy, SEM-EDX

Observations:

  • examined by Aviva Burnstock
  • examined by Gunnar Heydenreich

2000Technical examination / Scientific analysis

  • Micro-sampling / cross-sections
  • analysis
  • analysis
  • analysis

CDA ID/Inventory Number: UK_CIA_P-1947-LF-77

Cross-section number: 2012

Paint description:

Sample location:

Examination methods: microscopy, SEM-EDX, UV-light

Observations:

  • examined by Aviva Burnstock
  • examined by Gunnar Heydenreich

2000Technical examination / Scientific analysis

  • Micro-sampling / cross-sections
  • analysis

CDA ID/Inventory Number: UK_CIA_P-1947-LF-77

Cross-section number: 2174

Paint description:

Sample location:

Examination methods: microscopy, SEM-EDX

Observations:

  • examined by Aviva Burnstock
  • examined by Gunnar Heydenreich
  • X-radiography
  • x_radiograph
  • x_radiograph
  • created by The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
  • X-radiography
  • x_radiograph
  • x_radiograph
  • created by The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

Condition Reports

Date2007

  • thinned when the panel was cradled, probably in the early twentieth century (since removed: see conservation treatment)

  • apart from paint losses along the cracks and panel joins, the paint surface is in good condition

[Exhib. Cat. London 2007, 65]

Conservation History

Date2007

  • in the 1980s the cradle, which was forcing the panel to warp and crack was removed. It was placed in a panel tray which would allow the wood to move if necessary

[Exhib. Cat. London 2007, 65]

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'Adam and Eve', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/UK_CIA_P-1947-LF-77/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'Adam and Eve', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/UK_CIA_P-1947-LF-77/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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