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Lot Essay
From the moment it was conceived, it is clear that Dürer intended Adam and Eve to be a work of great ambition and importance, and he took an unusual amount of care in its creation. More preparatory drawings survive for it than for any other print by Dürer, including a beautiful study of the two figures on a blackened background (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; W. 333). It is also the only one of his prints to be signed with his full name and birthplace.
The entire composition is an image of duality and division and is laden with symbolic significance. The Tree of Knowledge separates Adam from Eve, and the image into two halves. Whilst Eve is associated with this tree, Adam grasps a branch of mountain ash, identified as the Tree of Life. The parrot and the serpent respectively symbolise wisdom and betrayal. The cat and mouse in the foreground form another pair of potential opposites, but, as the Fall has yet to occur, they sit peacefully together. The moose, the cow, the rabbit and the cat are associated respectively with the melancholic, the phlegmatic, the sanguine and the choleric temperament; the four humours which after the Fall came to rule over the human spirit, and made it subject to desire and sin. The mountain goat far in the background behind Eve is a traditional symbol of lust and damnation. It stands on the edge of the abyss, presaging the Fall to come.
The entire composition is an image of duality and division and is laden with symbolic significance. The Tree of Knowledge separates Adam from Eve, and the image into two halves. Whilst Eve is associated with this tree, Adam grasps a branch of mountain ash, identified as the Tree of Life. The parrot and the serpent respectively symbolise wisdom and betrayal. The cat and mouse in the foreground form another pair of potential opposites, but, as the Fall has yet to occur, they sit peacefully together. The moose, the cow, the rabbit and the cat are associated respectively with the melancholic, the phlegmatic, the sanguine and the choleric temperament; the four humours which after the Fall came to rule over the human spirit, and made it subject to desire and sin. The mountain goat far in the background behind Eve is a traditional symbol of lust and damnation. It stands on the edge of the abyss, presaging the Fall to come.