This circular brass plate has a shallow depression where the story of Adam and Eve is depicted. The center of the scene shows a vertical tree trunk with a huge serpent coiled around its trunk. The snake stretches from ground to crown. A man and woman flank the tree, the woman on the right and the man on the left. They are the same size as the tree trunk and the serpent. The snake’s head is level with the woman’s and they both turn their heads to meet the viewer’s gaze. Her wavy hair flows down her back to her knees. Adam's hair is shoulder length and forms a wide bush around his head. His ribs are prominent. Round fruit are seen hanging from the dense crown of the tree. The woman holds a round piece of fruit with her left hand and a branch that covers her pubis with her right. The man also covers his genital area with a branch in his right hand and holds out a piece of fruit in his left. Flowers and flowering shrubs grow profusely all around them. There is a brick wall enclosing the couple in the garden. A slightly raised bronze border separates this scene from a continuous circular border of upper case letters in Roman script, likely an inscription in Latin or German. Surrounding the inscription there is a decorative circle of tiny leaves connected end to end and a plain section of bronze that gradually rises to form the lip of this shallow bowl/plate. The lip is decorated at the periphery with a single discontinuous but regularly spaced scallop pattern. With a leaf design at their points.
German, Nuremberg
Plate: Adam and Eve,
15th century
Brass
,
41 cm (16 1/8 in.)
Object details
Accession number
M19w21
Primary Creator
German, Nuremberg
Full title
Plate: Adam and Eve
Creation Date
15th century
Provenance
Possibly purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1905 through the painter Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950).
Dimensions
41 cm (16 1/8 in.)
Display Media
Brass
Web Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Permanent Gallery Location
Tapestry Room
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), pp. 152-53. (as probably German, Nuremberg; dated 15th century)
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 9, no. 28 (13 Mar. 1966), p. 2. (as probably German, Nuremberg; dated 15th-17th centuries)
Rights and reproductions
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Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.