Adam and Eve

A depiction of Adam and Eve in Paradise should be perfect, showing nature, animals and people all as God intended them. The Italian painter Franceschini has produced a perfect representation of the scene, almost too perfect in fact, making the painting seem ‘un-Dutch’. Equally un-Dutch is the fact that it is a large, religious painting: works like this did not really appear in Protestant Holland, unlike in the Catholic areas of Europe.

William V bought this painting in 1765 at an auction of the late King Augustus III of Poland’s collection. The painting would have made quite an impact in The Hague – it was the largest example of classical Italian painting in the prince’s collection of seventeenth-century pictures.