The Nymph of the Spring

From the Tour: German Painting and Sculpture in the Late 1400s and 1500s

A pseudoclassical legend proposed that a statue of a nymph was found on the banks of the Danube River. Cranach portrayed the nymph as a seductive German woman resting on her bundled gown. Her nudity is emphasized by her jewels and filmy veils. A Latin inscription warns, "I am the nymph of the sacred spring. Do not disturb my sleep. I am resting." Coyly, however, this nymph peers through half-open eyes. Her bow and quiver of arrows are attributes of Diana, the mythological goddess of the hunt, who also symbolizes chastity. The game birds could refer to Diana or to Venus, the goddess of erotic love. Thus the subject is tantalizingly ambiguous.

For his courtly patrons, Cranach provided several versions of this provocative theme. On the rock above the spring is the artist's device, a winged serpent. In 1508 the Saxon duke ennobled Cranach, who thereafter often signed his paintings with a flying-serpent motif.

[http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=43716&detail=note] (accessed 08.02.2013)

'There are more than sixteen painted depictions of this subject [The Nymph of the Spring] and a drawing (formerly Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden by Cranach and his shop [1]. Because of variations in the details of the setting and the pose of the nymph, no two works are exactly the same. The precise source for the pose of Cranach's nymph is not known, although several authors have called attention to the similarities to Giorgione's 'Venus' (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden) or suggested that Giorgione might have painted a version, now lost, of the Nymph of the Spring [2]. Furthermore, Cranach might have been influenced by the woodcut depiction of a sleeping fountain nymph and satyr in Francesco Colonna's 'Hypnerotomachia Polophili', or Italian prints such as Girolamo Mocetto's engraving of 'Amymone', c. 1500/1514, or the drawing attributed to Dürer of 'The Nymph of the Spring', c. 1514. It is possible that Cranach might have known an antique source for the reclining figure, perhaps through a drawing or a print [3].

The earliest versions of the theme, the paintings in the Staatliche Schlösser uund Gärten, Jagdschloss Grunewald, Berlin, dated c. 1515/1516, and the Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, dated 1518, simply show the nymph lying in front of the fountain [4]. The drawing formerly in Dresden, usually dated c. 1525, is probably the first image to include what might be called the secondary attributes – the bow, arrows in a quiver, and partridges – that are found in the National Gallery's panel [5]. Somewhat later than the drawing are the paintings containing these objects in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, Lugano, dated between c. 1526/1530 and c. 1530/1535, and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, dated 1534 [6].

Because of the folded wings of the serpent in the artist's device, the Washington version of 'The Nymph of the Spring' is dated after 1537. Koepplin and Falk find stylistic similarities with the version in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Besancon, which they date c. 1540/1550 [7]. Comparison can also be made to the version in the Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, dated 1550 [8].

Even though late in date, the National Gallery's painting is to be grouped with the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder and is different in style and execution from those versions in Kassel and New York that are likely to be by Lucas the Younger [9].

[1] DE_SPSG_GKI1926_FR119A; DE_MdbKL_757_FR119; ES_MTB_115-1986-13_FR120; FR120A; FR259; FR232C; FR402; FR402A; FR403A; FR403B; FR403C; FR404; DE_BRD-KHB_935-1966-7_FR-none; formerly Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden, pen and brown ink and grey wash, 116 x 206 mm, [Rosenberg 1960, 22. No. 40] dated the drawing c. 1525; Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, 1533, 37 x 24 cm [Exhib. Cat. Basel 1974, Bd. 2, No. 546, Fig. 316]; Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, 1550, 71.5 x 122 cm [Cat. Oslo 1973, 376, No. 832]; Earl of Crawford and Balcarres collection in 1958, 35.6 x 24.1 cm. Photograph in NGA photographic archives. Art market, Switzerland, in 1970, 46.5 x 72 cm [Pantheon 28 (1970), 271]

[2][Glaser 1921, 100-101] in discussing the Leipzig version of 1518, was apparently the first to see the influence of Giorgione's 'Venus' on 'The Nymph of the Spring'. This view was accepted by several subsequent authors, among them [Friedländer, Rosenberg 1932, 49, No. 100], [Kurz 1953, 176], however, suggested that the prototype might have been a lost painting by Giorgione depicting Venus resting after the hunt with a herd of deer in the background. [Bonicatti, Cieri 1974, Fig. 15], reproduce a Giorgionesque drawing of a nymph and faun with a deer in the background. And as noted by Kurz, deer appear in the background of Cranach's drawing in Dresden.

[3] [Liebmann 1968, 435-437], emphasizes the importance of the 'Hypnerotomachia Poliphili', published in Venice in 1499. For Mocetto's engraving of 'Amymone' as a possible allegory of Mantua see [Kemp 1969, 12-17]. For discussions of the complicated questions of the sources and interpretation of Cranach's depictions of the Nymph of the spring and their relation to other images see [Murates 1973, 518-525]; [Exhib. Cat. Basel 1974, Bd. 1, 426-432, Bd. 2, 631-641]; [Schade 1974, 69-70]; [Bonicatti, Cieri 1974, 272-285]; [Wernli 1977, 134-137, No. 23].

[4] DE_SPSG_GKI1926_FR119A; DE_MdbKL_757_FR119

[5] Formerly Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden, pen and brown ink and grey wash, 116 x 206 mm, [Rosenberg 1960, 22. No. 40] dated the drawing c. 1525

[6] ES_MTB_115-1986-13_FR120, FR259. [Börsch-Supan 1977, 21-22] sees the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection painting as the point of departure for later versions, and this was discussed in light of Cranach's workshop practice by Löcher and Koepplin in an addendum.

[7] [Exhib. Cat. Basel 1974, 638, under no. 547]

[8] Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, 1550, 71.5 x 122 cm [Cat. Oslo 1973, 376, No. 832]

[9] FR403A, FR403B. Werner Schade, conversation with the author, 31 October 1990, expressed his belief that the National Gallery’s panel might be by Lucas Cranach the Younger.

[Hand, Cat. Washington 1993, 35-39]