CRANACH, Lucas the Elder
(b. 1472, Kronach, d. 1553, Weimar)

Allegory of Melancholy

1532
Oil and tempera on wood, 77 x 56 cm
Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar

Four years after Cranach treated this subject based on Dürer's engraving, Cranach freed himself from Dürer's model. This is particularly evident in the figure of melancholy herself. Comparing with the engraving, an erotic dynamism rather than contemplative passivity can be observed in the painting.