Cleveland Museum of Art

Adam and Eve in Paradise

Lucas CranachLinkedCulture matchlcp-bd6bd70e25f3

Date

1509

Medium

woodcut

Culture

Germany

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Object ID

107161

Lucas Cranach’s Eden shows the first couple just prior to tasting the forbidden fruit. Adam holds one fruit, and Eve plucks a second from the tree of knowledge. The composition is packed with stags, horses, sheep, and a lion, ram, and boar. Some of these are associated with human temperaments (personality types), but the many stags suggest more hunting ground than significant allegory. Cranach’s patron, Frederick, Elector of Saxony (1463–1525), whose coats of arms hang from the tree, was an avid hunter whose hunting grounds were perhaps a kind of paradise for him. The coats of arms hanging from the tree in this image are those of the artist's patron, Frederick, Elector of Saxony (1463– 1525).

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.