The Nymph of the Fountain
Lucas Cranach the Elder1534
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Liverpool, United Kingdom
The picture is based on a medieval text which describes a Roman fountain guarded by a statue of a nymph. Cranach, however, has changed the statue into a sensual creature, much more true to life than the idealised nudes of ancient Roman sculpture. The Latin inscription on the fountain reads: “I, the nymph of the sacred fountain, am resting, do not disturb my sleep”. In fact the nymph is not asleep, but looks out through half open eyes and seems to smile invitingly. Cranach was among the most important German painters of the early 16th century. He is noted in particular for his portraits and for his elongated, cheekily seductive female nudes.
- Title: The Nymph of the Fountain
- Creator: Lucas Cranach the Elder
- Creator Lifespan: 1472/1553
- Creator Nationality: German
- Creator Gender: Male
- Creator Death Place: Germany
- Creator Birth Place: Kronach, Germany
- Date Created: 1534
- tag / style: Lucas Cranach the Elder; Renaissance; German; Roman; fountain; nude; cushion; apples; bow; seductive; partridges; quiver; arrows; veil; grass; landscape; town; Latin
- Physical Dimensions: w762 x h508 cm (Without frame)
- Artist biographical information: The artist received his surname from his native city of Kronach in Germany, where his father also worked as a painter. In 1505 Cranach moved to the court of the Elector Frederick the Wise in Saxony. There he established a large workshop with his sons as assistants.
- Additional artwork information: The sources and iconography of this subject first painted by Cranach in about 1515 have been extensively discussed. Briefly, a latin text was fabricated in the 15th century and passed off as antique; it was stated to be an inscription on a fountain with a statue of a sleeping guardian nymph beside it on the Danube and an abbreviation of this text appears on the painting. Visual sources included, perhaps, a lost Venus resting from the hunt by Giorione, various actual fountains with carved nymphs and more certainly one of the woodcuts from the Hyperotomachia Poliphili published in Venice in 1499. Later versions including this one often have deer or a bow and arrows or both suggesting a subject similar to Giorgione's lost 'Venus resting from the Hunt', where Venus personified life and energy; in the same way the partridges symbolise Venus or Luxuria (Luxuria in the sense of luxuriant growth not voluptuousness). 'The Nymph of the Fountain' is, however, exceptional among later versions in that the fountain of the earliest versions is not replaced by a natural spring and the stripe cushion is another very artificial element unusual in the whole group. To learn more about the Walker Art Gallery's 13th-16th-century collections, please follow this link: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/13c-16c/
- Type: Oil on wood panel
- Rights: Presented by Liverpool Royal Institution in 1948
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