The Fall of Man

The Fall of Man (c. 1628-29) at the Museo del Prado was painted during or shortly after Rubens's diplomatic visit to Madrid, when his sustained engagement with Titian's Fall of Man in the Spanish Royal Collection gave him fresh inspiration for his own treatment of the same subject. Rubens had first depicted Adam and Eve in a version made in collaboration with Jan Brueghel for the Mauritshuis; this later, independent treatment reflects the fuller Baroque confidence of his mature style and the renewed contact with the Venetian tradition that the Madrid visit had provided. The Prado's Fall of Man can thus be read alongside Titian's version in the same collection — an unusual opportunity to study the relationship between a masterpiece and a painter's conscious engagement with it. The Spanish royal collection's comprehensive holdings of both Titian and Rubens reflect the Spanish monarchs' understanding that the two painters occupied successive epochs of European painting's highest achievement, and their systematic acquisition of both provided later viewers with the ability to trace the line of artistic inheritance directly.

The composition centers on the two nude figures beneath the tree, their warm flesh tones contrasting with the dark foliage. Rubens' rendering of the human body combines Titianesque warmth with his own more robust physicality.

This Fall of Man from 1628 has been conserved over the centuries. The canvas has been relined. The flesh tones and garden details have been well-maintained through careful cleaning. Some of the darker foliage passages have become more opaque with age.