By 1504 the great German printmaker Dürer was a master of engraving, and this rich, dense image of the first man and woman renders human and snake skin, animal fur, and tree bark and leaves distinctively. It also manifests Dürer's fascination with ideal form. The figures are in nearly symmetrical poses, and that of Adam is reminiscent of the Hellenistic Apollo Belvedere, excavated in Italy late in the fifteenth century, of which Dürer must have seen a drawing. The engraving is meant to show Adam and Eve not only physically perfect but also ideally balanced psychologically. Four of the animals represent the four temperaments--the cat is choleric, the rabbit sanguine, the ox phlegmatic, and the elk melancholic--which were believed to be in perfect equilibrium before the Fall.