Adam and Eve

In this very influential print, Albrecht Dürer based the figures of Adam and Eve on two sculptures from antiquity. Dürer's reference to classical elements underscores the Renaissance belief that the ancient world and its art had been a period of great human achievement. Appealing to an erudite audience, the four animals symbolize the four temperaments of mankind. It was believed that before Adam and Eve sinned, the elk's melancholic gloom, the rabbit's sanguine sensuality, the cat's choleric cruelty, and the ox's phlegmatic sluggishness were in harmony, securing Adam and Eve's perfect health.