Cleveland Museum of Art

The Expulsion from Paradise

Jan WierixLinkedCulture matchlcp-a73e23105176

Date: c. 1606
Medium: Pen and brown ink on parchment
Culture: Flanders
Department: Drawings
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 157290

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Originally this exquisite sheet belonged to a series of 21 drawings by the Antwerp artist Jan Wierix illustrating the creation and early history of man as recounted in Genesis. In this scene, an angel casts Adam and Eve out of paradise for their transgressions. Precious in its delicate pen strokes and careful detail, the drawing describes Eden as a microcosm populated by an array of animals whose tranquility is in the midst of being interrupted by human actions. Pen and ink drawings on vellum such as this were prized by collectors, who valued them as miniature paintings to be displayed in albums and sometimes framed on the wall. This artist's version of the Garden of Eden includes a turkey, a bird that was unknown in Europe until the 16th century, when it was imported from the Americas.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Dudley P. Allen Fund
Provenance: ?-1910: Adalbert Freiherr von Lanna (1836-1909), Prague (Lugt 2773) | 1910: his sale, H. G. Gutekunst, Stuttgart, 6-11 May 1910, lot 596 | ?-1930: Toni Straus-Negbaur (?-1942), Berlin-Grunewald (Lugt 2459a) | 1930: her sale, Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Berlin, 25-26 November 1930, no. 115. | 1993: with Katrin Bellinger Kunsthandel, Munich | 1994: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio