The Creation (c. 1526): Art, History and Details

The Creation (c. 1526) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hans Holbein the Younger (German, active England and Switzerland, 1497/98–1543).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death series, a collection of 41 prints, begins with this scene of the sixth day of Creation, when, according to Genesis, humankind was made. Here, a menagerie of animals crowd around in awe as God stoops to pull Eve from Adam’s side. From above, the moon, sun, and winds witness the birth. Eve is figured in this print as a fully formed, adult woman, though, much like the tree limbs behind her, she branches off from her partner, suggesting her origin from Adam’s rib. The pair is unaware of their nakedness, a sign of humanity’s then sinless state.

Object facts

• Title: The Creation
• Date: c. 1526
• Creator attribution: Hans Holbein the Younger (German, active England and Switzerland, 1497/98–1543)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: woodcut
• Dimensions: Sheet: 7.1 x 4.8 cm (2 13/16 x 1 7/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1929.144

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Woodcuts: Dance of Death Series by Hans Holbein the Younger." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art16, no. 8 (October 1929): 141-151

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.