Melancholia

Melancholia

Title

Melancholia

[Christie's Online database; https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-melancholia-5813547-details.aspx; accessed 29 Nov 2017]

Painting on wood

Medium

Painting on wood

[Christie's Online database; https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-melancholia-5813547-details.aspx; accessed 29 Nov 2017]
[Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, 125, No. 277]

'An image charged with dynamism, fantasy and eroticism, Melancholia is one of the most iconic and enigmatic subjects in Cranach's oeuvre. Its iconography, which is highly original, complex and somewhat unsettling, warrants a detailed description. Set in an austere chamber, with a small opening to the right on to a

'An image charged with dynamism, fantasy and eroticism, Melancholia is one of the most iconic and enigmatic subjects in Cranach's oeuvre. Its iconography, which is highly original, complex and somewhat unsettling, warrants a detailed description. Set in an austere chamber, with a small opening to the right on to a rocky landscape, a winged woman sits, dressed in a lavish vermilion dress, her long hair sensuously flowing down her shoulders, seemingly preoccupied with the sharpening of a wooden stick. In front of her, eight nude children dance frantically to the sound of a drum and pipe, played by two of their companions, while five further children have collapsed in exhaustion on the floor. Dominating the upper third of the composition, a threatening black cloud filled with wild and fanciful creatures permeates the space. Alluring young women, hovering on flying carpets and charging horses, use their carnal charms to subjugate men, while hybrid demons, reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch's most frightening creations, complete the devilish procession. The head of an old bearded man emerges ominously from the far right of the cloud, with the word MELANCHOLIA projecting from his lips towards the winged figure below.'

[Christie's Online database; https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-melancholia-5813547-details.aspx; accessed 29 Nov 2017]

Attribution
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Attribution

Lucas Cranach the Elder

[Christie's Online database; https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-melancholia-5813547-details.aspx; accessed 29 Nov 2017]
[Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, 125, No. 277]

Production dates
about 1533
1533

Production dates

about 1533

[cda 2017]

1533

after [Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, 125, No. 277] dated '1533'; [Christie's Online database; https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-melancholia-5813547-details.aspx; accessed 29 Nov 2017]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 52.4 x 74 cm

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 52.4 x 74 cm

  • [Christie's Online database; https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-melancholia-5813547-details.aspx; accessed 29 Nov 2017]

  • differing dimensions at FR: 62 x 84 cm

  • [Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, 125, No. 277]

Signature / Dating

None

Signature / Dating

  • None

  • [cda 2017]

  • Artist's insignia lower edge and dated '1533'

  • [Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, 125, No. 277]

Inscriptions and Labels

Next to the cloud: 'MELANCHOLIA'

Inscriptions and Labels

Inscriptions, Badges:

  • Next to the cloud: 'MELANCHOLIA'

Owner
Private Collection
Repository
Private Collection
CDA ID
PRIVATE_NONE-P149
FR (1978) Nr.
FR277
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P149/

Provenance

  • (probably) Granville Penn (1761-1844), London, and from 1834, Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire, and Pennsylvania Castle, Portland
  • Christie's, London, 10 May 1828, lot 119, 'Melancholy - A Woman with Children dancing and a Vision above' (unsold)
  • Christie's, London, 3 April 1830, lot 72 (£6 to Wasse)
  • private collection, Southam Delabere, near Cheltenham, by 1906
  • with Paul Cassirer, Berlin, 1924
  • F. Gutmann, Haarlem
  • A. Volz, The Hague, by 1927
  • Hans Ferdinand Heye, Düsseldorf, Amsterdam, and by descent until 1989
  • anonymous sale [From a Private Collection]; Christie's, New York, 31 May 1989, lot 103
  • anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 6 July 2006, lot 64 (£512,000)
  • 8 July 2014 auctioned at Christie's London, lot 11
    [Christie's Online database; https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-melancholia-5813547-details.aspx; accessed 29 Nov 2017]

Literature

Reference on page Catalogue Number Figure / Plate
Exhib. Cat. Frankfurt 2007 316 under no. 97
EditorBodo Brinkmann
TitleCranach der Ältere, [Frankfurt, Städel Museum, 23 Nov 2007 - 17 Feb 2008]
Place of PublicationOstfildern
Year of Publication2007
Hersant 2005 112
AuthorYves Hersant
TitleRote Melancholie
Publicationin Jean Claire, ed., Melancholie. Genie und Wahnsinn in der Kunst, Exhib. Cat. Paris, Berlin
Place of PublicationOstfildern-Ruit
Year of Publication2005
Pages110-17, 140ff.
Neave 1988 7, 9 Fn. 35
AuthorDorinda Neave
TitleThe Witch in Early 16th-Century German Art
JournalWoman's Art Journal
IssueVol. 9, no. 1
Year of Publication1988
Pages3-9
Heck 1986 260 Fig. 6
AuthorChristian Heck
TitleEntre Humanisme et réforme: La Mélancholie de Lucas Cranach l'Ancien
JournalLa revue du Louvre et des Musées de France
Issue36
Year of Publication1986
Pages257-264
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979 124 277 Fig.
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
EditorG. Schwartz
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBasel, Boston, Stuttgart
Year of Publication1979
Koepplin 1973 A 225
AuthorDieter Koepplin
TitleCranachs Ehebildnis des Johannes Cuspinian von 1502. Seine christlich-humanistische Bedeutung
Place of PublicationDüsseldorf
Year of Publication1973
Link https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9938
Klibansky, Panofsky, Saxl 1964 384
AuthorErwin Panofsky, Raymond Kilbansky, Fritz Saxl
TitleSaturn and Melancholy, studies in the history of natural philosophy, religion and art
Place of PublicationLondon
Year of Publication1964
Bandmann 1960 63 pl. 19
AuthorGünter Bandmann
TitleMelancholie und Musik. Ikonographische Studien
SeriesWissenschaftliche Abhandlungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
Volume12
Place of PublicationCologne
Year of Publication1960
Hartlaub 1937 296-297 Fig. 3
AuthorGustav Friedrich Hartlaub
TitleArcana Artis (Spuren alchemistischer Symbolik in der Kunst des 16. Jahrhunderts)
JournalRepertorium für Kunstwissenschaft
IssueN.F. 6.1937
Year of Publication1937
Pages289-352
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1932 71 228
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication1932
Link http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/friedlaender1932
Panofsky, Saxl1923 150-151
AuthorErwin Panofsky, Fritz Saxl
TitleDürers 'Melencolia I'. Eine quellen- und typengeschichtliche Untersuchung
Place of PublicationLeipzig
Year of Publication1923
Exhib. Cat. London 1906 27 43 (under)
Authorn. a.
TitleExhibition of Early German Art, [Burlington Fine Arts Club, London]
Place of PublicationLondon
Year of Publication1906

Research History / Discussion

Dieter Koepplin has argued convincingly (op. cit.) that although Cranach was quoting formally from Dürer’s work, his intentions were radically different. While the debate surrounding the exact meaning of Dürer’s print is still very much alive, it is generally agreed that melancholy, which was perceived during the Middle Ages as a sinful humour akin to sloth and denial of God, is presented in Durer’s image as a condition necessary to achieving artistic, scientific and philosophical genius. However, this positive humanist interpretation of melancholy was still far from meeting with general consensus and one of its strongest adversaries was the great religious reformer Martin Luther, a close friend of Cranach. Indeed, in his writings Luther frequently described melancholy as a devilish affliction: ‘All heaviness of mind and melancholy come from the devil; especially these thoughts, that God is not gracious unto him’ (M. Luther, The Table Talk of Martin Luther, ed. and translated by W. Hazlitt, Philadelphia, 1883, p. 334).

[...]

The inclusion of the fifteen boisterous children in this painting remains enigmatic. The design would appear to derive from an engraving of the same subject by Andrea Mantegna, which is now lost but is recorded in the 1685 inventory of Cesare d’Ignazio d’Este in Ferrara: ‘sixteen children who are playing music and dancing, with Melancolia written above’ (inventory published in G. Campori, Raccolta di Cataloghi ed Inventarii inediti, Modena, 1870, p. 328). They may be included to represent merriment and light-heartedness, in contrast to the morose state of the winged allegory.

[Christie's Online database; https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-melancholia-5813547-details.aspx; accessed 29 Nov 2017]

  • Melancholia, about 1533

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Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'Melancholia', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P149/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'Melancholia', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P149/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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