The Fall of Man
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 104.5 x 138.4 cm (41 1/8 x 54 1/2 in.) framed: 128.9 x 163.2 x 10.2 cm (50 3/4 x 64 1/4 x 4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CNE-B
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Patrons' Permanent Fund
Accession Number
1996.34.1
Art Historical Context
Hendrick Goltzius’s *The Fall of Man* (1616) captures the pivotal biblical moment when Adam and Eve yield to temptation in the Garden of Eden. Painted in oil on canvas, the work reflects the artist’s late-career shift from his celebrated engravings to large-scale painting. By this date, Goltzius had already established himself as one of the most technically gifted printmakers of the Dutch Republic, and his paintings often retain the crisp detail and dramatic lighting associated with his graphic work. Created during the early Dutch Golden Age, the canvas speaks to a period when biblical narrat...
About the Artist
Hendrick Goltzius · 1558–1617
Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) was the most celebrated engraver of the Northern Renaissance and a pivotal figure in Dutch Mannerism. Born near the German-Dutch border, Goltzius transformed printmaking into a virtuoso art form through his revolutionary 'swelling line' technique, where the burin was manipulated to create lines of varying thickness that produced unprecedented tonal effects and three-d...