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The Creation and Fall of Man

Maker

(Artists)
1474-1515

Title

The Creation and Fall of Man

Date of Production

1513-1514

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

Height: 56.2 cm (panel)
Width: 165.5 cm (panel)

Accession Number

P.1966.GP.6

Mode of Acquisition

Gambier Parry, bequest, 1966

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

On display

Keywords









Label Text

The biblical story unfolds in four episodes from left to right: after creating the animals, God gives life to Adam and shapes Eve from Adam’s rib. Finally, a serpent with a human face tempts them to taste a fruit from the tree God had forbidden them to touch. This will lead to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

This is one of three scenes commissioned by the Italian banker Giovanmaria Benintendi. They were designed to be set into the decorative panelling of a room in his family’s palace in Florence. The landscape, with its rolling hills and river, recalls the countryside outside the city.

Provenance

Bought in Italy by Irvine; William Buchanan; William Coningham sale, Christie's, 9.vi.1849 (lot 44 - as Albertinelli); bought in, and acquired the same year by Thomas Gambier Parry through Colnaghi's; by descent to Mark Gambier-Parry; Gambier-Parry Bequest 1966

Exhibition History

Leonardo, Michelangelo and the Renaissance in Florence, National Gallery of Canada & Ottowa & Canada, 27/05/2005-05/09/2005

The Gambier-Parry Collection, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

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