Gud kaldte. Siddende Adam og Eva, der omfavner hinanden 1896

Hans Gyde Petersen created this sculpture, "God Called. Sitting Adam and Eve Embracing Each Other," held at the SMK, though the year is unknown. Notice the incomplete forms: we confront figures truncated at the torso and thigh. The stone itself displays fractures, with the support visibly split, bound together with tape. This incompleteness is critical to understanding the work. Petersen employs a traditional biblical subject to explore modern themes of fragmentation and imperfection. The coarse texture of the stone and the work's evident damage contrast with the idealized forms typically associated with classical sculpture, disrupting conventional notions of beauty and wholeness. The sculpture challenges fixed meanings. By presenting Adam and Eve in a state of brokenness, Petersen invites us to reconsider the narratives of creation, innocence, and the fall, prompting an ongoing reinterpretation of these fundamental stories.