Melancholia (Lucas Cranach the Elder, Colmar)

Painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Melancholia

Artist	Lucas Cranach the Elder
Year	1532
Medium	oil paint on panel
Movement	Northern Renaissance allegory
Subject	Melancholia
Dimensions	76.5 cm × 56 cm (30.1 in × 22 in)
Location	Unterlinden Museum, Colmar
Accession	1983

Melancholia is a 1532 oil painting by the German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder. It is now in the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, France. Its inventory number is 83.5.1.

This vertical painting belongs to a series of four works inspired by Albrecht Dürer's seminal 1514 engraving Melencolia I. The National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen owns a horizontal version from the same year which presents a number of similarities. The Colmar version is accepted as a work largely painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder himself, but with a possible contribution of the 19-year-old Hans Cranach, which would account for the softness of the brushstrokes in some parts.

References

"La Mélancolie". museesgrandest.org. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
^ Haas, Magali (April 2016). Le musée Unterlinden - Guide des collections. Paris: Éditions Artlys. pp. 146–147. ISBN 978-2-85495-625-2.
"Die Melancholie". lucascranach.org. Retrieved 1 April 2023.

Media related to Melancholia (Lucas Cranach (I), 1532) at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Lucas Cranach the Elder
Artworks	Torgauer Altar (1509) Martyrdom of Saint Barbara (c. 1510) Madonna with Child with Young John the Baptist (1514) Portraits of Henry IV of Saxony and Catherine of Mecklenburg (1514) Prague Altarpiece (c. 1520) Adoration of the Shepherds (1515–1520) Cupid Complaining to Venus (1526–1527) Adam and Eve (1528) Judgement of Paris (1528) Law and Grace (Prague version; Gotha version) (c. 1529) Law and Grace (1529) Female Portrait (c. 1530) The Three Graces (1531) Venus and Cupid with a Honeycomb (c. 1531) Melancholia (Colmar) (1532) Melancholia (Copenhagen) (1532) The Crucifixion (1532) Lukas Spielhausen (1532) Portrait of a Saxon Noblewoman (1534) Caritas (1537) Christ Blessing the Children (1537) Schneeberg Altarpiece (1539) The Fountain of Youth (1546) Wittenberg Altarpiece (1547) The Procuress (1548) Weimar Altarpiece (1555)
Family	Hans Cranach (son) Lucas Cranach the Younger (son) Augustin Cranach (grandson) Portrait of Lucas Cranach the Elder (1550 portrait by Lucas Cranach the Younger)
Related	Art in the Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation Lutheran art

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