- Museum number
- SL,5218.181
- Description
-
Sheet of studies for the hand and arm of Adam and for rocks and bushes for the engraving of 'Adam and Eve' of 1504
Pen and brown and black ink
Verso: Slight outline drawing of an arm
Pen and black ink
- Production date
- 1504
- Dimensions
-
Height: 216 millimetres
-
Width: 275 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This is one of several study sheets to have survived which Dürer made in connection with his engraving of Adam and Eve, 1504. He has here experimented with various positions for Adam's arms and hands, drawn in reverse to the print, of which some are shown holding the apple offered by Eve. The actual position of Adam's left hand used in the engraving is the study in the centre, and for his right arm, the study in the top left corner, seen here holding a stick as opposed to the branch in the print. The sketch of rocks on the lower part of the sheet is a preliminary study made in the same direction as the engraving for the rocky outcrop in the top right corner. Further preparatory drawings for the print are in the British Museum (5218-182) the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York and the Albertina, Vienna (see 'Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy', nos. 89-90).
Lit from J.Rowlands 'Drawings by German Artists and Artists from German-speaking regions of Europe in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum: the Fifteenth Century, and the Sixteenth Century by Artists born before 1530', London, BM Press, 1993, no. 161: Waagen, Treasures, i, p. 233, no. 181; Hausmann, Naumann's Archiv, p. 41, no. 181; Hausmann, p. 112, no. 155; Ephrussi, p. 70; Lippmann, part xxiii, p. 6, no. 234, repr.; Conway, p. 19, no. 300; Pauli, p. 13, no. 281; BM Guide, 1928, p. 43, no. 372; Tietze, i, p. 76, no. 256, repr. verso; Flechsig, Dürer, ii, p. 324; Winkler, Dürer, ii, pp. 58f., no. 336, repr. recto, app. pl. xxi, verso; Panofsky, ii, p. 120, no. 1207; Rowlands, Dürer, p. 19, no. 101; Strauss, ii, p. 754, nos. 1504/13 and 14, repr.; Nuremberg, Gothic & Renaissance, p. 293, under no. 120; BM Dürer and Holbein, pp. 80f., no. 53
Further lit: G.Bartrum 'German Renaissance Prints' exhibition catalogue, London, British Museum, 1995, no.22: R. Schoch in 'Albrecht Dürer. Das druckgraphische Werk' Band I, 'Kupferstiche, Eisenradierungen und Kaltnadelblätter' Munich, 2001, p.112, under no. 39; G.Bartrum, 'Dürer and his Legacy' exhibition catalogue, London, British Museum, 2002, no. 88; S. Meurer in 'Grünewald et le retable d'Issenheim', edited by P. Béguerie-De Paepe and P. Lorentz, exh. cat. Colmar, 2007, no. 25; I. Seligman, 'Lines of Thought', London, 2016, no. 32, p. 71; Ilja M. Veldman, "Portrait of an art collector: Pieter Spiering van Silvercroon" Simiolus 38:4 (2015/16): 243, repr.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited
1928 BM London, Guide Woodcuts, Drawings of A. Dürer, no. 372
1971 BM, Dürer no.101
1988 Jul-Oct, BM, Age of Dürer & Holbein, no. 53
1990 Apr-Aug, BM, Treasures of P&D (no cat.)
1995 BM, German Renaissance Prints 1490-1550, No. 22.
1999/00 Nov-Feb, Sydney, Art Gallery of NSW, 'Drawing the Figure'
2002/3 Dec-Mar, BM, Dürer and his Legacy, no. 88
2004 Sep-Dec, Sheffield, The Millennium Galleries, 'The Biggest Draw'
2007/8 Dec-Mar, Colmar, Musée d'Unterlinden, 'Grünewald', no.25
2016 3 Sep - 6 Nov, Poole Museum, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 32
2017 1 Jan - 25 Feb, The Brynmor Jones Library Art Gallery, University of Hull, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 32
2017 12 Mar - 5 May, Ulster Museum, Belfast, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 32
2017 May - Sep, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 32
2017-2018 Oct - Jan, RISD Museum, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 32
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- SL,5218.181
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: C,07.181
