Important European Terracotta & Bronze Sculpture from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

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Lot 410
  • 410

North German, 16th century

Estimate
25,000 - 45,000 USD
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Description

  • Adam and Eve

  • a pair, brass

  • heights excluding bases 22 3/4 in., 22 in.; 58 cm, 56 cm
dark brown lacquer over golden-colored patina, on later composition bases

Provenance

Heim Gallery, London

Exhibited

Heim Summer 1982, no. 11

Catalogue Note

RELATED LITERATURE

New York, Nuremberg 1986

This pair of figures may have originally flanked a Tree of Knowledge, as described in the Book of Genesis. The thickness of the walls and weight of the casts, the brassy color of the alloy, and the rudimentary nature of the models indicate a German origin. Wood models, rather than wax or terracotta, were employed particularly in the North during the Renaissance period. The use of wood models is clear here in the casts as well as in the simplified modelling, such as the cutting of the hair.