Circle of Leonhard Kern (1588 - 1662) | Entourage de Leonhard Kern (1588 - 1662)

This alabaster carving depicts Adam and Eve hiding under the branches of an apple and fig tree, afraid of God’s punishment which would follow eating the forbidden fruit. The figures stand in a rich natural environment, surrounded by animals. The composition of this virtuoso carving is paralleled by an alabaster relief depicting Adam and Eve attributed to the prolific German sculptor, Leonard Kern (1588–1662) in the collection of the Klosterneuburg Monastery, near Vienna. A second relief attributed to Kern with the same compositional scheme and iconography was with the gallery George Laue in 2016. The Staaliche Museen zu Berlin holds a third relief with a variant composition of the same subject, which is attributed to Kern’s workshop (inv. no. 1 75/47). While the composition clearly derives from Kern’s work, there are a few stylistic differences which suggest that the present relief is carved by his circle: the overall proportions of the figures are more elongated reliefs attributed to Kern or his workshop, and the shape of the relief differs as the examples mentioned above have a rounded top edge which is straight in this relief. In comparison to the Austrian relief, the hair of Adam is longer and more elaborate in the present alabaster. The present relief demonstrates ample detail and skilled features, such as the curling hair of Eve, however the above-mentioned reliefs by Kern are finished to a higher degree which indicates a different author for this carving.

Adam and Eve and compositions alluding to the Fall of Man feature prominently in the surviving oeuvre of Leonhard Kern. Kern’s most significant version of the subject is the ivory group bearing the LK monogram in the Bode-Museum, Berlin (inv. no. 713). Only a small number of his works are signed with his monogram LK and very few are documented.

RELATED LITERATURE/ REFERENCES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES

E. Grünenwald, Leonhard Kern (1588-1662): Meisterwerke der Bildhauerei fur die Kunstkammern Europas, exh. cat. Hällisch-Fränkisches Museum, Schwäbisch Hall, 1989, pp.259-261, no.138; 

G. Laue, M. Hahn, J. Bruchhaus, V. Spenle, Leonard Kern, Der Deutsche Giambologna | The German Giambologna, Kunstkammer Georg Laue, Munchen, 2016;

https://www.stift-klosterneuburg.at/collection/adam-und-eva-nach-dem-suendenfall-sich-verbergend-leonhard-kern/, 01/11/2023