The Opening Masterpiece to De Bry's Edition of Hariot's Virginia. Adam and Even Being Tempted by the Snake.
Beautiful antique 16th-century engraving of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, published as part of De Bry's Grands Voyages.
De Bry's take on this subject, which is one of the most important motifs present in 16th-century painting and engraving, is marvelously executed. The muscular detail of the couple, the faces of the animals, and the complex depiction of the female snake are all representative of the work of this German master engraver.
This work, which opens De Bry's description of the White voyage to Virginia (one of the earliest obtainable descriptions of Virginia Indians), has been studied extensively for the allegorical narrative that it provides. Michiel van Groesen writes about this plate that:
“When readers turned over the first page of the first volume of the collection, they were immediately treated to the first engraving, that of the Fall of man. A powerful and highly recognisable image, the depiction of Adam and Eve was intended to remind readers of the Garden of Eden, which had been forfeited and supplanted by a degenerated world.”
Rarity
This is the second time that we have offered this engraving in 25 years of business.
Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was a prominent Flemish engraver and publisher best known for his engravings of the New World. Born in Liege, de Bry hailed from the portion of Flanders then controlled by Spain. The de Brys were a family of jewelers and engravers, and young Theodor was trained in those artisanal trades.
As a Lutheran, however, his life and livelihood were threatened when the Spanish Inquisition cracked down on non-Catholics. De Bry was banished and his goods seized in 1570. He fled to Strasbourg, where he studied under the Huguenot engraver Etienne Delaune. He also traveled to Antwerp, London, and Frankfurt, where he settled with his family.
In 1590, de Bry began to publish his Les Grands Voyages, which would eventually stretch to thirty volumes released by de Bry and his two sons. The volumes contained not only important engraved images of the New World, the first many had seen of the geographic novelties, but also several important maps. He also published a collection focused on India Orientalis. Les Grands Voyages was published in German, Latin, French, and English, extending de Bry’s fame and his view of the New World.