ADAM AND EVE

One of outstanding representatives of Renaissance Venetian painting of the 16th. century, Titian painted Adam and Eve in a late period of his career.

He depicted the biblical subject in a conventional way: Adam and Eve's nude bodies stand by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, where the serpent is twined, turned into an anthropomorth creature with a child head . The visible difference with the usual representations of this scene, prior to the sin, is Adam's refusal attitude towards the temptation coming from his companion. Titian designed his body in tension, trying to put her aside with his left arm.

Some researchers point that probably this painting has been influenced from other works on the same subject; in particular, they hazard that Titian made a synthesis between Raphael's fresco for the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican and an engraving by Dürer. Different elements of Titian's Adam and Eve appear on one or another of these works, such as the disposition of the figures around the tree, the boy-snake winded on the trunk or the animal at Eve's feet. In 1628 Rubens copied Titian's painting adding a parrot to the composition which appeared in the German painter's engraving but not in the Venetian's canvas.

Technical information:
Catalogue Nr. 429
Size: 2,40 x 1,86 m.
Oil on panel
Date: 1550



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Tiziano Vecellio de Gregorio, called Titian (1490?-1576)
Italian School (16th. century)

Rubens was fascinated by Titian and took advantage of his stay in Spanish Court to copy a series of works by the Venetian master belonging to the Royal Collection. The Flemish painter made a version of this Adam and Eve which is more a translation of his own than a literal copy, changing formal features, expressive contents and painting manners.

Titian's Adam and Eve belonged to the collection of Antonio Pérez (secretary to Philip II) and it did not entered the Royal Collection until it was bought by the king in 1585. In 1600 it was at the Alcázar of Madrid where it was seriously damaged during the 1734 fire. Late in the 18th century it was hung again at the Royal Palace as a pendant of Rubens' copy. For Charles III this painting, together with others representing nudes, was lascivious and he ordered them to be concealed in secret rooms of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando where they remained until their removal to the Prado, created in 1819.