Adam and Eve,

1504

Dürer’s print depicts the fateful moment in the biblical narrative when Eve, having been tricked by Satan in the guise of a serpent, disobeys God and offers Adam the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Their disobedience led to the couple’s expulsion from Paradise, an event known as the Fall of Man. In the lower portion of the image, four animals represent the four temperaments, or humors, that were thought to govern the human condition after the Fall: the rabbit (sanguine), the bull (phlegmatic), the cat (choleric), and the elk (melancholic). This ancient theory, which prevailed throughout Dürer’s time, posited that an individual’s personality and ailments were determined by the predominant humor in their body—signified by blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Practitioners would assess the balance or imbalance of these humors when considering appropriate treatment.