CRANACH, Lucas the Elder
(b. 1472, Kronach, d. 1553, Weimar)

Adam and Eve

1533
Oil and tempera on red beechwood, 51 x 35 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

The subject of Adam and Eve was one of the most popular of the Cranach workshop, at least 50 paintings of Adam and Eve survive. The earliest surviving versions of Adam and Eve by Cranach, painted around 1510, show the nude figures against a neutral background. From the 1520s Cranach depicted Adam and Eve in a landscape setting accompanied by various animals. The version in Berlin belongs to these paintings.