Fall (or Temptation of Adam), from "The Dance of Death"
Original title: Fall (or Temptation of Adam), from "The Dance of Death"
kurzbeschreibung
Hans Holbein the Younger cut this woodcut around 1526, and it reached print in 1538. It presents the Fall of Man: Adam stands holding an apple, while animals and further figures are woven into an ornamental setting around him.
Description
At the heart of the picture a single figure grips an apple, his body bound up with a tree. Animals and human shapes spread across the surrounding space, filling out the biblical episode. Delicate tendrils and leaves run over the ground behind them, heightening the ornamental feel of the print. Everything stays within a grey monochrome, with light and shade produced purely by the way the lines are cut.
Context
The sheet belongs to the Dance of Death series, which Holbein devised in the 1520s. First published in Lyon in 1538, the cycle became widely known for its richly detailed scenes. Its subject is the transience of life and the equality of all people before death.
Impact
Precise draughtsmanship and ornamental design give the sheet a solemn air that is also faintly menacing. That the Fall should appear as part of a Dance of Death sharpens the moral message of guilt and mortality.
Technique
To make the woodcut, the design was cut into a block of wood and afterwards pressed onto paper. The slender lines and subtle shading attest to the artist's considerable craft and to the advanced state of printmaking in the Renaissance.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)