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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileafter Hendrick Goltzius
This engraving depicts the biblical scene of the Fall of Man, with Adam and Eve shown as idealized nude figures in a lush landscape. They are surrounded by a diverse array of animals, including a lion, an elephant, and a hedgehog, representing the harmony of creation before the fall. The serpent, coiled around the central tree, looks down as Eve holds the forbidden fruit while gesturing toward Adam.
Hendrick Goltzius was a central figure of Haarlem Mannerism, a movement deeply engaged with the symbolic and philosophical potential of the human form. In the Western esoteric tradition, the Fall of Man depicted here is frequently interpreted through Hermetic and Kabbalistic lenses as the descent of the primordial 'Anthropos' or 'Adam Kadmon' from a state of spiritual unity into the duality and corruption of the material world.
HGoltzius Inuentor I. Matham sculptor I. Visscher excu. Cum privil. Sa. Ca. Mt. 1606 Fortunati ambo, si mens non laeua fuisset: At postquam vetitos vitali ex arbore fœtus Non estis veriti audaci decerpere dextra, Nescia posteritas quoque vestra obnoxia culpa. Rettulit (heu!) animis mox illatabile vulnus. Debuit ipse Deus dira cui morte mederi. SS.
Translation
H. Goltzius inventor I. Matham sculptor, I. Visscher excudit. With the privilege of His Sacred Imperial Majesty, 1606 Happy you both, if your minds had not been perverse: But after you did not fear to pluck with daring right hand the forbidden fruits from the tree of life, your unknowing posterity also became liable for the fault. It brought back (alas!) soon an incurable wound to our souls, for which God Himself had to provide a remedy through a dire death.
Poimandres (Corpus Hermeticum)
The biblical Fall of Adam parallels the Hermetic account of the Primal Man (Anthropos) who, seeing his reflection in Nature, falls into the material world.
Jacob Boehme
Boehme's later theosophy provides an extensive esoteric commentary on the 'First Adam' and the loss of the original androgynous state depicted in Edenic scenes.
Object
Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem
Engraving
religious
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
https://hdl.handle.net/21.12102/d635166f-a370-8bc7-d490-24930725dd98
Public domain
4336 × 3530 px
0b13033a5c720430093514428ea0d34816f153d8
April 18, 2019
March 23, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.