German Renaissance: Albrecht Durer

"Adam and Eve" (1504, top right)
     This engraving shows the moment that Eve gives the apple, given to her by the deceiver, to Adam; also known as the fall of mankind.  The animals surrounding their feet represent the theory of the four temperaments.  Durer leaves his signiture on his work by means of the sign held by Adam.  The illusion of three-dimentionality exists in this piece in the forshortening of the forearms of both Adam and Eve on theviewer's left side each.  Eve has very masculine shoulder muscles that seem to overtake her neck but the two figures are very well rendered in a classical style common to the Renaissance era.

"The Four Witches" (1497, left)
     This engraving is of four nude women who are not greatly identified as characters of religious legend or stories.  They gather in front of an open portal and stare at a hanging sphere that resides centrally in the close quarters they inhabit.  To the left side of the engraving, a demon yells from the flames that consume it. The women are rendered fairly accurately but with, maybe, an excessively large posterior protruding from the backside of the woman to the left; but the shading in the muscles of their backs and the tendons at the fold of their legs is quite impressive.

"The Battle of the Sea Gods" (1475, bottom right)
      This engraving shows several male and female figures with a nude costume.  The detail and shading on their bodies is less detailed here than in some of the other engravings by Durer; but the lack of shadings allows the viewer to acknowledge the muscular framework in its most basic of the figures.  Two god-like beings with the torso of men, the tail of a leviathan, and the front legs of a horse quarrel violently in the swirling waves.