# Adam and Eve

**Albrecht Dürer** (German, 1471–1528)  
1504  
Engraving  
9 7/8 x 7 7/8in. (25.1 x 20cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 19.73.1. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336222).

## About this work

Adam and Eve stand in the Garden of Eden at the instant before the Fall, as the serpent offers the fruit and Eve reaches to take it. Dürer used the pair to set out his study of ideal human proportions, drawn from classical sculpture, and engraved them with extraordinary precision. The animals around them have been read as the four temperaments, which the Fall would throw out of balance: the cat for choleric, the rabbit for sanguine, the elk for melancholic and the ox for phlegmatic. A cat crouches near a mouse at Adam’s feet, and a tablet hanging from a branch carries Dürer’s Latin signature and the date 1504.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Albrecht Dürer made this in 1504, aged 33. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Engraving.** Lines cut directly into a metal plate with a steel burin, which makes them swell and taper. It took years to master, and for centuries it was how paintings travelled as pictures.

### [Albrecht Dürer](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/albrecht-durer)

German, 1471–1528; born in Nuremberg; died in Nuremberg

Dürer trained as a goldsmith with his father and then under the Nuremberg painter Michael Wolgemut, whose studio produced woodcut book illustrations. Two journeys to Italy brought him into contact with Venetian painting and the theory of proportion, which he set out to bring north. He raised woodcut and engraving to new heights of detail and ambition, issuing his own series such as The Apocalypse and The Life of the Virgin, and his engraving Adam and Eve of 1504 shows his study of the ideal human figure.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Prints
- The artist was 33
- Real size: about 10 × 8 in (25 × 20 cm). The 8 × 10 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 16th century
- Subjects: Birds, Cats, Rabbits, Snakes, Adam, Eve, Ox
- Colour: black
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1000.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1000/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/adam-and-eve-met-336222).