Saturday, April 11

Adam en Eva


An etching by Rembrandt van Rijn of Adam and Eve (or Adam en Eva), 1638.

It is so funny how Rembrandt portrays the sinful pair as old and unattractive, almost troll-like. You can see a dragon (snake) weaving itself up a tree on the right. And if you look closely you can see an elephant faintly etched into the bottom right corner. Apparently the elephant's name is Hansken, an elephant that was shown all across Europe in the 17th century. Rembrandt, I suppose, had some kind of fascination with this specific elephant or maybe just the animal itself.

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