NARRATOR:
In a very human gesture of indecision, the first human being scratches his head. But there’s no doubt that the fall of man is at hand.
As envisioned by the 16th-century German master Lucas Cranach, this Adam is a fresh-faced innocent—no match for this wily and seductive Eve. His expression is open; his eyes are trusting. The springy stem and leaves of the strategically placed apple he holds suggest health and vigor.
Eve’s gaze seems more knowing. Her hair spirals out like the coils of the serpent hissing in her ear.... and she touches the branch above her head suggestively.... Below her waist, the leaves of some thorny plant seem to caress rather than cover her sex…
Both figures are defined in a linear, ornamental manner. Concentrate on the left hand painting for a moment. Starting at the lower left, let your eyes follow the graceful line that defines Adam’s body—up around his raised elbow… along his curving fingers… and down his muscular shoulder to the fateful apple. Eve’s three-quarter pose is even more complex and sinuous. A line undulates up her ample hip to the curve of her breast, sweeps down around her arm… up over the apple, and along her sloping shoulder, to the arm above her head.
Cranach was famous for his paintings of Adam and Eve—this is one of about thirty—but their purpose remains a mystery. Did they hang in a church as a reminder of original sin? Cranach was a close friend of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, who often preached about the fall of man and its consequences. Or was the subject simply an excuse for Cranach to paint nudes for the private pleasure of aristocratic patrons? In any event, the exquisitely refined technique and glowing color of these panels make them objects of visual delight in any setting.
Adam
c. 1530
Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472-1553)
On View
The son of a painter, Cranach was born in the town of Kronach in Franconia. In 1504, Frederick the Wise of Saxony called him to Wittenberg, where he became Court Painter. Cranach received his noble patron's coat of arms in 1508. This emblem, a winged serpent bearing a ring in its mouth, can be seen on the trunk of the tree beside Adam.
Cranach's treatment of forms and space is rather abstract, even though our initial impression may focus on their apparent naturalism. The highly linear, ornamental manner, and corresponding emotional detachment, are consistent with the Mannerist aesthetic of the sixteenth century. This secular treatment of an Old Testament subject was meant for pleasure rather than instruction. Adam and Eve were probably painted for a member of the court of the Elector and intended to hang in domestic surroundings.
Details
- Artist Name: Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472-1553)
- Title: Adam
- Date: c. 1530
- Medium: Oil on panel (one of a pair)
- Dimensions: 74 1/8 x 27 1/2 in. (188.3 x 69.9 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1971.1.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Said to have been in the Stroganoff Collection.
Located in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Kiev, from around 1919, transferred June 1927 to;
Lavra Reserve Museum, Kiev, inv. no. 11,390, as “[single] picture of Adam and Eve with defects,” unattributed, transferred 1928 to;
Museum of Art, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev, inv. no. 5741, as single, cradled panel, 1.87 × 1.405 m, removed by Soviet government 29 September 1929 to the Antiquariat Leningrad (sale [Stroganoff Collection], Rudolph Lepke’s Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlin, 12–13 May 1931, no. 44; sold as a pair with Eve for 47,000 Reichsmarks to);
[Jacques Goudstikker (1897–1940), Amsterdam, appropriated 1940 through];
[Alois Miedl (1903–1990), Amsterdam to];
Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering (1893–1946), Berlin;
Recovered 1945 by Allied Forces and transferred to;
Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, inv. no. NK 1693;
Claimed 1962 by and transferred 1966 to Commander George Stroganoff Scherbatoff (1898–1976), New York and Connecticut, and sold 1971 through;
[Spencer A. Samuels & Co. Ltd., New York, to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Located in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Kiev, from around 1919, transferred June 1927 to;
Lavra Reserve Museum, Kiev, inv. no. 11,390, as “[single] picture of Adam and Eve with defects,” unattributed, transferred 1928 to;
Museum of Art, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev, inv. no. 5741, as single, cradled panel, 1.87 × 1.405 m, removed by Soviet government 29 September 1929 to the Antiquariat Leningrad (sale [Stroganoff Collection], Rudolph Lepke’s Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlin, 12–13 May 1931, no. 44; sold as a pair with Eve for 47,000 Reichsmarks to);
[Jacques Goudstikker (1897–1940), Amsterdam, appropriated 1940 through];
[Alois Miedl (1903–1990), Amsterdam to];
Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering (1893–1946), Berlin;
Recovered 1945 by Allied Forces and transferred to;
Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, inv. no. NK 1693;
Claimed 1962 by and transferred 1966 to Commander George Stroganoff Scherbatoff (1898–1976), New York and Connecticut, and sold 1971 through;
[Spencer A. Samuels & Co. Ltd., New York, to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Tentoonstelling van Schilderijen en Antiquiteiten geexposeerd door den Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker N. V.
- Rotterdam, Rotterdamsche Kunstkring, 1936-12-17 to 1937-01-10
- Netherlands, to
[on loan]
- National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), 1971-02-26 to 1972-11-15
Tentoonstelling oude kunst uit het bezit van den internationalen handel
- Rijksmuseum, 1936-07 to 1936-09
Selections from the Norton Simon, Inc. Museum of Art
- Princeton University Art Museum, 1972-12-03 to 1974-07-17
- Seldis, Henry J., Art News, p. 25
- Steadman, David W., Art Journal, fig. 3 pp. 34-40
- International Studio, p. 63
- The Connoisseur, p. 68
- The Art News, 1931, p. 5
- Friedlaender, Max J., Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, 1932, no. 164 p. 60
- Tentoonstelling oude kunst uit het bezit van den internationalen handel, 1936, no. 35 p. 9
- Tentoonstelling van Schilderijen en Antiquiteiten geexposeerd door den Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker N.V., 1937, nos. 8-9
- Selections from the Norton Simon Museum, Inc. Museum of Art, 1972, no. 5 pp. 32-33, 26
- Friedlaender, Max J. and Jakob Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, 1978, no. 195 p. 108
- Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America, 1979, p. 84
- Los Angeles Magazine, 1979,
- Norton Simon Museum, Selected Paintings at the Norton Simon Museum, 1980, p. 35
- Updike, J., Impressions, 1985, pp. 25-58
- Koerner, Joseph Leo, Representations, 1985, fig. 14 p. 84
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, pp. 31-32
- Schmidt, James A., Pantheon, 1992, pp. 194-195, 35-36
- Updike, John, Just Looking: Essays on Art, 2001, pp. 28-29
- Jager, Janine, Verkaufte Kultur: Die sowjetischen Kunst- und Antiquitätenexporte 1919 - 1938, 2001, pp. 151-170
- Westheimer, Dr. Ruth ; Charles Sullivan, The Lover's Companion, 2002, pp. 76, 77
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 742 p. 334
- Matt Shaer, The Lost Maidens of Berlin, 2018, pp.62-74
- Thea Caillieux, Eva und Adam - Adam und Eva, 2022, Abb. 17 pp. 86-90, p.88 (ill.)
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