Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise: The Expulsion

This black-and-white woodcut depicts the post-lapsarian life of the first humans. In the foreground, Adam, wearing a crude fur garment, leans forward as he works the soil with a long-handled tool; behind him, a grinning skeleton clutches a long staff and gestures toward the ground. To the left, Eve sits on a small rise, her torso draped in skins, cradling and nursing an infant. An hourglass rests on a stump in the far left background, emphasizing the passage of time and the mortality introduced by the Fall.

This image is part of Holbein's 'Danse Macabre' series, reflecting the medieval and Renaissance preoccupation with universal mortality. It reinterprets the Genesis narrative (Genesis 3:19, 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread') through the iconographic lens of the Dance of Death, where Death accompanies humanity through their daily labors.