Melancholia

Details

Lucas Cranach I (Wittenberg 1515-1586 Weimar) and studio
Melancholia
inscribed 'MELANCHOLIA' (upper right)
oil on panel
20 5/8 x 29 1/8 in. (52.4 x 74 cm.)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

We are grateful to Dr. Werner Schade who, on inspection of the original, believes that the present lot is by Lucas Cranach I (Wittenberg 1515-1586 Weimar). He has noted, as has Dr. Dieter Koepplin to whom we are also grateful, that it is almost certainly the picture that was formerly signed and dated '1533', recorded as the prime version of this composition in M.J. Friedländer & J. Rosenberg, Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, Berlin 1932, p. 71, no. 228, illustrated, and in the revised edition, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London, 1978, p. 124, no. 277, illustrated; both recording the picture as incorrectly measuring 24½ x 33 in. 62 x 84 cm.). Please therefore note the following additional provenance and literature:

PROVENANCE:
Southam-Delabere, Cheltenham, 1906.
P. Cassirer, Berlin, 1924.
F. Gutmann, Haarlem.
A. Volz, The Hague, by 1932.
Heye Collection, Florida.
Anonymous sale [From a Private Collection]; Christie's, New York, 31 May 1989, lot 103, where acquired by the present owner.

LITERATURE:
Burlington House, London, Winter Exhibition, 1906, under no. 43.
E. Panofsky and F. Saxl, Dürer's Melancholia, I, 1923, pp. 150-1. M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, Berlin, 1932, p. 71, no. 228.
G.F. Hartlaub, in Zietschrift fur Kunstgeeschlichte, 6, 1937 p. 289f.
G. Bandmann, Melancholie und Musik, 1960, p. 63, f, pl. 19.
R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky and F. Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy, studies in the history of natural philosophy, religion and art, 1964, p. 384. D. Koepplin, Cranachs Ehebildnis des Johannes Cuspinian von 1502, 1973, p. 225f.
M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London, 1978, p. 124, no. 277, illustrated.
C. Heck, 'Entre humanisme et reforme: la Melancolie de Lucas Cranach l'Ancien', in La Revue du Louvre, October 1986, p. 260, fig. 6.

Lot Essay

We are grateful to Dr. Werner Schade for confirming the attribution of this apparently unrecorded picture on the basis of transparencies. Few other versions of this picture are known; one version is recorded as being signed and dated '1533' (see M.J. Friedländer & J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, Berlin, 1932, p. 124, no. 277).

The meaning of this subject remains something of an enigma. Erwin Panofsky and Fritz Saxl, in their discussion of Dürer's Melancholia I, suggest that this representation of melancholy demonstrates the contrast between melancholy and merriment, in which the dominant mood is one of dejection. The role of the woman seated to the right of the composition is still as yet unclear. Above the dancing and sleeping children is a witches' coven, led by Satan, which Panofsky-Saxl interpreted as alluding to the melancholic propensity for magic and devilry (Friedländer & Rosenberg, loc. cit.). It is thought that the composition of this painting derives from Mantegna's Melancholy, which showed sixteen dancing and music-making putti.

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