Eve

Eve, the temptress, looks into the mirror. She steps on the serpent’s head (Genesis 3,15). The pair of deer characterise the setting as the Garden of Eden. Adam can just be seen in the background.

Notice her sensuous body features. To deflect criticism, the painting was later referred to as ‘Prudence’.

Toward the end of his life, Baldung started to mix secular subjects and traditional religious topics, reflecting impatience with the Reformation's constraints on religious art. Although Baldung continued to produce religious subjects for private patrons, he increasingly overlaid portraits or scenes with themes from Greek or Roman legends.

Oil on wood, 1529, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Painting by German artist Hans Baldung Grien from Gmünd in Schwabia (ca 1484 - 1545).