Adam and Eve

In 1765 Prince William V bought this Adam and Eve at an auction of paintings from the collection of the late Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. The prince was 17, and at 234 by 158 centimetres the canvas became the largest example of classical Italian painting in his collection.

In The Hague it was an unusual thing to own. Large religious pictures like this were made for the Catholic parts of Europe and hardly appeared in the Protestant Dutch Republic. Franceschini, a Bolognese painter, shows Paradise as it should be, with nature, animals and the first couple exactly as God intended. The Mauritshuis calls the result almost too perfect, which is part of why the picture looks so un-Dutch beside its neighbours. The museum dates it to about 1680.

The French took it to Paris with the rest of the prince's pictures in 1795, and it returned after 1815. It belongs to the Mauritshuis and hangs in the Gallery Prince Willem V in The Hague.