Adam and Eve (Original Sin) - Lucas Cranach the Elder

The painting Adam and Eve (Original Sin) by Lucas Cranach the Elder (circa 1538) is part of the collections of old European art of the National Gallery Prague. It comes from the Cistercian monastery in Osek near Duchcov, from where it was acquired in 1949.

Description and classification
Oil painting on lime wood panel, dimensions 50 x 34,5 cm. Signed on the lower right on the tree trunk (winged snake with folded wings). It comes from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder around 1538. Infrared reflectography of the image detected only the outline drawing.

The Prague painting shows the figures of Adam and Eve next to the Tree of Knowledge. Eve holds onto a branch with her left hand and leans on the trunk with the sole of her bent right foot. With her knee she touches Adam and with her right hand she hands him an apple. Adam stands somewhat in the background in front of a thick bush. His left hand is resting on Eva's shoulder, and in his right hand he holds a twig that covers the private parts of both figures. In line with Reformation theology, the active role of Eve is emphasized, who tempts Adam to sin (everything bad is the fault of the woman - "Weibermacht"). The later version of Adam and Eve, created by the successor of Lucas Cranach the Elder, Anton Heusler, around 1550 (National Gallery Prague), changes the theme compositionally and depicts both characters completely naked.

The theme of Adam and Eve appears repeatedly in the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder from 1509. He depicted the two figures either separately on the altar wings (Adam and Eve, 1528, Uffizi Gallery, Florence) or together in a single panel. In Cranach's earlier depictions of the biblical story (1508–10, Besançon, 1510, Munich, 1512, Coburg ), the two figures stand under the centrally placed Tree of Knowledge and do not touch. Later versions of Original Sin usually depict Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden surrounded by beasts and attribute to Eve the role of temptress. One later composition by Lucas Cranach shows an active Adam embracing Eve and offering her an apple (1537, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna).