Adam and Eve Eating the Forbidden Fruit (Adam et Eve mangeant le fruit défendu)

Etching with a Biblical scene of the Genesis (3:6), illustrating the creation of Eve, accompanied by an inscription in Latin with the verse describing the scene: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." The scene is divided in two by the tree around which the snake scrolls, her female torso and head on the top, talking to Eve. To the left of the tree are Adam, sitting on a bench of grass, biting an apple that Eve has handed to him; Eve, next to him, looks up to the serpent, while holding another apple on her hand. To the right is a view of the Garden of Eden, populated by anymals: a dog lying on the lower right corner, a couple of cows grazing near him, and a deer up on a cliff. This print is likely a reversed copy of a signed print by Étienne Delaune with the same print, and its composition is closely related to a print created by Bernard Salomon on the same subject, illustrating the historical scenes of the Bible.



The scene is part of a set of 36 prints illustrating the history of the Genesis, all with an inscription in Latin with the Biblical verse of the scene or a short summary of the passage with the story, under the lower margin of the thin, rectangular frame containing the scene. The succession of episodes in this set is somewhat chaotic, as only three plates illustrate the history of Creation, while six are consecrated to the history of Adam and Eve, and with striking breaks in the narration. The existence of more complete sets of drawings by Delaune on the same subject suggest that he might have intended more plates to illustrate the history of the Genesis in a more thorough manner, although the prints are yet to be found. Many of these prints represent, simultaneously, two or more episodes separated in time, following the 16th century tradition, inherited from the Middle Ages. Most of them are also inspired on the engravings by Bernard Salomon, created to illustrate the "Quadrins historiques de la Bible" (Historical Biblical Scenes) by Claude Paradin, first published in Lyon in 1553.