Proportions of ideal beauty

As early as 1504, Albrecht Dürer had engraved Adam and Eve in a strikingly similar pose, but here they are depicted on a single sheet in a paradisiacal setting with other plants and animals. In the two panel paintings, he depicts the figures standing on a narrow strip of rocky ground against a neutral dark background. They stand almost frontally, in a striding position, slightly turned towards each other, their faces in three-quarter profile. Dürer's main interest is the anatomical correctness of the male and female body, with Adam depicted with a darker complexion, while Eve appears almost light-skinned.

Some scholars attribute the copy to Hans Baldung Grien, who worked in Dürer's art workshop at the time of its creation. Even the monogram and the date (“...1507 years after the birth of the Virgin...”) on a small tablet were copied exactly from the original.

The pictures came to Mainz in 1803 as part of the Napoleonic donation, thus becoming part of the original holdings of the painting gallery.