This rectangular plate depicts the Fall of Man from the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Torah (Pentateuch). It opens both the Hebrew Bible (Tanach) of Judaism and the Old Testament of Christianity. The scene depicts the moment of the Fall, shortly before Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve stand naked and entwined in front of a paradisiacal landscape with trees. Eve holds the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in her left hand (Genesis 2:9 and 2:17). On the left edge of the picture, the serpent of temptation winds itself around a tree trunk and looks at the couple. To their left lies a stag, to their right an ox. A gilded copper frame with a twisted edge and a palmette-shaped hanging device frames the picture panel.

The Fall of Man is a popular motif in sixteenth-century Limousin enamel paintings. The depiction of Adam and Eve reflects the Renaissance ideal of the human body, which artists of the period achieved through intensive study of human anatomy. Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) provided the template for this panel with his woodcut The Fall of Man (ca. 1510, sheet 2) as part of his Small Passion (1511). It was probably created in the circle of Jean I Pénicaud (c. 1480–after 1541) or his older brother Nardon Pénicaud (1470–c. 1542). Two further works are attributed to the latter in the Museum Angewandte Kunst (inv. nos. W.M.H1 and G.R.1438). Characteristic of his style is the imposing depictions of figures whose body parts are modeled with layers of white and black enamel (grisaille). Striking are the lively skin tone (incarnate), the expressive faces, the strong dark lines of the body contours, and the strong gold highlights that accentuate numerous parts of the picture.