Adam and Eve

German or Flemish c1570-1630

Oil on wood over pen and ink. Size of panel: 43.6 x 26.7 cm.

A painted copy of Dürer's famous engraving of 1504 (Bartsch 1; Dodgson 39; Schoch 39).

There are various small differences between the print and the small panel painting: the plaque with Dürer's monogram is missing; the parrot is in the other direction and there is no goat atop the rock in the background. The painting is unfinished: the various animals are executed in a sketchy manner and the under-drawing is still visible (see Susan Foister, Dürer and the Virgin in the Garden, National Gallery, London 2004).

The 'Dürer Renaissance' refers to the phenomenon of the copying of Dürer's prints, drawings and paintings made throughout the second half of the sixteenth century and well into the seventeenth century (see Giulia Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and his legacy, British Museum exhibition catalogue, London 2002, pp. 266-282). Artists like Hans Hoffmann and Hendrick Goltzius as well as lesser-known and anonymous artists produced numerous copies and imitations. The main centres were Dürer's home town of Nuremberg, the court of the Emperor Rudolf II in Prague (eg Hoffmann, Daniel Fröschl) and the court of the Elector of Bavaria in Munich (eg Paul Juvenal, Jobst Harrich, Georg Gärtner and Gabriel Weyer), but also other cities such as Augsburg and Antwerp. Such copies were produced for various reasons - Dürer's work was scarce, it was a means of paying tribute to Dürer and it was standard practice to learn through copying from great masters.

There are other copies of the Adam and Eve extant such as the painting 'Sinfall' by Joos de Beer (1550 Delft - before 1595 Utrecht) in the Gemäldegalerie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna (inv. 582) and a rough and very large copy in Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. See also the fine copy attributed to Jakob Zuberlin (1556-1607) of the Knight, Death and the Devil (Susan Dackerman, Painted Prints: the revelation of color, the Baltimore Museum of Art exhibition catalogue, 2002, no. 61). There are also substantial holdings of Dürer Renaissance material in Vienna (see Karl Schütz, 'Die Dürer-renaissance des späten 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts' in Albrecht Dürer im Kunsthistorischen Museum, 1994) and Munich (see Gisela Goldberg et al, Albrecht Dürer: Die Gemälde der Alten Pinakothek, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich 1998).

Bought by a private collector, Northern America.