Adam and Eve

In 1504 Albrecht Dürer published an engraving of Adam and Eve as two calm, evenly balanced classical bodies. Around 1520 Jan Gossaert took the same couple and unsettled them. They are almost life-size, wedged between two tree trunks, legs crossed, their weight off balance. The fruit has just been eaten. Adam presses his fingers to his mouth and looks anxiously at Eve, who keeps the bitten apple low at her side and stares ahead. Above them the serpent winds along a branch, its coils echoing their linked arms and her long curls. Far behind stands a fountain of the garden they are about to lose. In the foreground the Gallery points out sea holly, a sign of lust, and columbine, the fear of God. The panel belongs to the Royal Collection and is on loan from the King.