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Source Description
<em>Arm of Eve</em> is the only surviving preparatory drawing for Dürer’s life-size panels of Adam and Eve in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. It is also one of the few surviving drawings by the artist made on Venetian blue paper, a support he began to use for his chiaroscuro studies while visiting Venice in the winter of 1506–7. With extraordinary economy of means, using only black and gray ink and a limited amount of wash and gouache for shading and heightening, Dürer suggested the grace and balance of the complete human form in this composition of a disembodied arm and hand. Such a study of a hand in ideal proportions cannot help but suggest the hand of the artist, a self-referential nod to his own abilities.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
141931
label
Arm of Eve
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
141931
contentType
drawing
title
Arm of Eve
description
<em>Arm of Eve</em> is the only surviving preparatory drawing for Dürer’s life-size panels of Adam and Eve in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. It is also one of the few surviving drawings by the artist made on Venetian blue paper, a support he began to use for his chiaroscuro studies while visiting Venice in the winter of 1506–7. With extraordinary economy of means, using only black and gray ink and a limited amount of wash and gouache for shading and heightening, Dürer suggested the grace and balance of the complete human form in this composition of a disembodied arm and hand. Such a study of a hand in ideal proportions cannot help but suggest the hand of the artist, a self-referential nod to his own abilities.
date
1507
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q80041564
creators
11617
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 34.4 x 26.7 cm (13 9/16 x 10 1/2 in.)
cul
Germany, Nuremberg
accession
1965.47
Source extras
tec
point of brush and gray and black wash, brush and gray and black wash, heightened with white gouache
tombstone
Arm of Eve, 1507. Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528). Point of brush and gray and black wash, brush and gray and black wash, heightened with white gouache; sheet: 34.4 x 26.7 cm (13 9/16 x 10 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Alan Kennedy, 1965.470
supportMaterials
description
blue laid paper
collection
DR - German
inscriptions
inscription
signed, center right, in gray ink: 1507 / [artist monogram: AD]; verso, lower left, in graphite: Nro 24. F 13 z. [bn?] 10zgL.
inscription
Watermark: Anchor (similar to Briquet 461)
inscription
"franck / 828" in graphite, center verso (Lugt 946)
didYouKnow
The blue paper that Dürer used to make this drawing was a specialty of Venetian paper makers in the 16th century, who achieved the color by infusing the paper pulp with dyed fibers.
citations
citation
Heller, Joseph. <em>Das leben und die werke Albrecht Dürer's</em>. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1831.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 125, no. 24
citation
Ephrussi, Charles. <em>Albert Dürer et ses dessins.</em> Paris: A. Quantin, 1882.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 144
citation
Lippmann, Friedrich, Joseph Meder, Jos Schönbrunner, and Friedrich Winkler. <em>Zeichnungen von Albrecht Dürer</em>. Berlin: G. Grote, 1883-1929.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 19-20, no. 164
citation
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. <em>Exhibition of Albert Dürer's Engravings, Etchings, and Dry-Points: And of Most of the Woodcuts Executed from His Designs : November 15, 1888 to January 15, 1889</em>. Boston: Printed for the museum by A. Mudge & Son, 1888.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 75, no. 278
citation
Schönbrunner, Jos, and Joseph Meder. <em>Handzeichnungen alter Meister aus der Albertina und anderen Sammlungen</em>. Wien: Gerlach & Schenk, 1896-1908.
page_number
Reproduced: vol. 7, no. 793
citation
Meder, Joseph. <em>Die Handzeichnung: ihre Technik und Entwicklung</em>. Wien: Kunstverlag Anton Schroll, 1923.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 154
citation
Flechsig, Eduard. <em>Albrecht Dürer: sein Leben und seine Künstlerische Entwickelung.</em> Berlin: G. Grote, 1928.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 570, no. 519
citation
Pfister, Kurt. <em>Albrecht Dürer: Werk und Gestalt</em>. Zürich: Amalthea-Verlag, 1928.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 100, no. 135
citation
Winkler, Friedrich<em>. Die Zeichnungen Albrecht Dürers</em>. Berlin: Deutscher Verein für kunstwissenschaft, 1936.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 112-113, no. 434
citation
Tietze, Hans, and E. Tietze-Conrat. <em>Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke Albrecht Dürers.</em> Basel: Holbein-Verlag, 1937.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 38-39, 190, no. 348
citation
Panofsky, Erwin.<em> Albrecht Dürer.</em> Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1945.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 120, no. 1208
citation
Tietze, Hans. <em>Dürer als Zeichner und Aquarellist</em>. Wien: Schroll, 1951.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 25
citation
Winkler, Friedrich. <em>Albrecht Dürer, Leben und Werk</em>. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1957.
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: p. 199, n2
citation
Hasselt, Carlos van, "Old Master Drawings in the Lugt Collection," Apollo (Nov. 1964): pp. 417-419.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 417
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, “Golden Anniversary Acquisition,” 1965, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 106
citation
Stechow, Wolfgang. "Cleveland's Golden Anniversary Acquisitions." <em>Artnews</em> 65, no. 5 (September 1966): 30-64.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 30
citation
"La Chronique des Arts," <em>Gazette des Beaux-Arts,</em> No. 1173 (October 1966): pp. 3-ff.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 7
citation
Lee, Sherman E.. <em>Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 133
citation
Young, Mahonri Sharp, "Great Guns at Detroit and Cleveland," Apollo (September 1966): pp. 237-241.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 239, 241
citation
Lee, Sherman E. “Golden Anniversary Acquisitions: September 10 through October 16.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 53, no. 7 (September 1966): 181–284.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 202; Mentioned: p. 282, no. 89
citation
Burton, Richard, "Fifty years of Cleveland," The Connoisseur vol. 163 no. 656 (Oct. 1966): pp. 128-135.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 129
citation
Yamazawa, Syoichi, "News from Abroad," Mizue: a monthly review of the fine arts, No. 742 (Nov. 1966): pp. 92-98.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 92-93
citation
Art Quarterly, "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, October-December 1966," The Art Quarterly vol. XXX, no. 1 (1967): pp. 63-90.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 71
citation
Benesch, Otto, and Eva Benesch. <em>Master Drawings in the Albertina: European Drawings from the 15th to the 18th Century</em>. Greenwich, Conn: New York Graphic Society Publishers, 1967.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 23
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 106
citation
Fricke, Berthold. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Hannover: Knorr & Hirth, 1970.
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 42-43
citation
Talbot, Charles W. <em>Dürer in America, His Graphic Work.</em> Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1971.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. vii, p. 17-18, pp. 58-59, cat. no. xv
citation
Young, Mahonri Sharp, "The Loving Eye, the Cunning Hand," Apollo (July, 1971): pp. 40-45.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 42-43
citation
Werner, Alfred, "Albrecht Dürer, Master Draftsman," American Artist vol. 35 no. 350 (September 1971): pp. 24-
page_number
pp. 24-29, 61-63
citation
Strauss, Walter L.. <em>The Complete Drawings of Albrecht Dürer.</em> New York: Abaris Books, 1974.
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: p. 996, no. 1507/1
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 124
citation
Johnson, Mark M. <em>Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism.</em> Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 35-36; reproduced: p. 36, fig. 32
citation
<em>Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg, 1300-1550. </em>Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1986.
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: p. 296, no. 122
citation
<em>Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg, 1300-1550</em>. Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1986.
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: p. 296, no. 122
citation
Dunbar, Burton L., and Edward J. Olszewski. <em>Drawings in Midwestern Collections: A Corpus</em>. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996.
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 141-142, no. 86,
citation
DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 8, p. 12, pp.148-49; p.292, cat.no. 59; Reproduced: p. 149
citation
Heijbroek, J. F. <em>Frits Lugt, 1884-1970: leven voor de kunst : biografie</em>. Bussum: Thoth, 2010.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 409
citation
Franklin, David, and C. Griffith Mann. <em>Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 160-161
citation
Heijbroek, J. F. <em>Frits Lugt, 1884-1970 : Living for Art : A Biography</em>. Bussum, Paris: Thoth Publishers; Fondation Custodia, 2012.
page_number
pp. 400-402; illus. p. 401.
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: P. 156
citation
Glaubinger, Jane and Lemonedes, Heather. “Treasures on Paper: The Crème de la crème of the museum’s prints and drawings collection is now on view.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine</em> 54, no. 2 (March/April 2014): 6-9.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 7
citation
Metzger, Christof, Karl Schütz, sand Julia Zaunbauer. <em>Albrecht Dürer: The Complete Paintings, Selected Drawings and Prints.</em> Cologne: Taschen, 2025.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 448, fig. D101
creditline
Gift of Alan Kennedy
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:17:16.313000
sourceId
141931
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - German
med
point of brush and gray and black wash, brush and gray and black wash, heightened with white gouache
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
1dac713528066b75