Collection: Adam and Eve

ARTIST: Museum Religious Art Classics

ARTWORK NARRATIVE:

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens – c. 1628 – 1629

Eve accepts the forbidden fruit from the hands of the devil, who is half child and half serpent. Sitting on the roots of the tree of Good and Bad, Adam tries to stop her. This is a copy of a painting on the same subject that Titian made for Felipe II (P00429). Rubens saw it during his trip to Spain in 1628 and 1629. In keeping with his own concept of painting, he made significant changes with respect to the original, including the use of a more intense palette. He changed Adam´s position and gave him more muscles, basing his figure directly on the sculpture of the Belvedere Torso at the Vatican Museum. The inclusion of a parrot not present in Titian´s work, as a symbol of Good, strengthens the idea of Redemption, which is contrasted with the fox that alludes to Evil and Lust. This work belonged to Rubens until his death and appeared at the El Pardo Palace years later.

Their feast day is December 24.