De schepping van de wereld schepping van de mens

This circular engraving depicts the biblical creation of woman within a lush, wooded landscape. God the Father, rendered as a bearded patriarch in billowing clouds, gestures toward the newly formed Eve while Adam lies in a deep slumber in the foreground. In the distant background, a secondary scene shows Adam standing among various animals, including a lion and a stag.

This work by a central figure of Haarlem Mannerism captures the late 16th-century fascination with the origin of human anatomy and the divine breath. In the Western esoteric tradition, particularly Neoplatonism and early Kabbalah, the creation of Eve from Adam represents the division of the primordial androgynous human into dualities of male and female, spirit and matter.