Melancholia

Melancholy, one of the four humors from classical and medieval tradition, is personified in Cranach's compelling image. The humors -- Choler, Phlegm, Melancholy, and Sanguinity -- were believed to be combined in each person in varying degrees, and therefore an essential part of one's nature. The inspiration for our picture is Dër's engraving of Melancholy done in 1514. The iconography surrounding the engraving is complex, with Melancholy personified as a winged woman surrounded by instruments of learning - an hourglass, scales, a compass - yet paralyzed in idleness.

Our painting, worked in Cranach's more lighthearted style, depicts a woman, who far from brooding, seems reflective while she whittles away. Similarly, departing from the gloomy atmosphere of Dürer's work, Cranach's image substitutes an open, airy landscape and a vista with children playfully wrestling a dog, while the 'melancholic' dog is concealed behind the table. Two elements not found in the engraving are novel additions in our painting: Melancholia making a magic wand, and the introduction of black magic in the form of a band of witches and demons in the upper left corner.

There are three known versions of the present composition, each with a number of variations (see M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, op. cit., p. 124, under no. 277A): Switzerland, Private collection (oil on panel; 30 1/8 x 22 in.); London, Earl of Crawford collection (oil on panel; 44 x 28 in.); and Stockholm, Christina of Sweden collection (oil on panel; 29 7/8 x 22 in.).