Illustration til Ewalds "Adam og Eva". I 1779 - 1780

This etching illustrating Ewald's "Adam and Eve" was made by J.F. Clemens in the late 18th or early 19th century, when the institutions of art were becoming increasingly public. The print shows Adam and Eve asleep beneath a tree, with a winged angel above them, against the backdrop of what seems to be an infinite sky. The scene exemplifies the shift in thinking about the relation of humans and nature that was occurring in Europe at the time. Enlightenment thinkers questioned religious dogma and there was a burgeoning interest in both science and the natural world. Clemens was working in Denmark, a small country with close ties to the rest of Europe and especially to Germany. The etching reveals the influence of Neoclassicism on art at the time. It also suggests new thinking about the relationship between church and state. To understand this moment better, we can look to the period's literature, philosophy, and political writing. Each artistic creation is embedded in its time and place.