With only a stick to help them, three nude boy children attempt to play a game, the object of which is to pass a large ball through a hoop. \u00a0A winged woman, lost in thought, splits a stick, seemingly in the process of making another hoop.<\/p>\n
Through reference to a similar figure in an Albrecht D\u00fcrer print, the seated female has been read as a personification of Melancholy, one of the four temperaments. Renaissance scholars believed that the world was built from a system of correspondences. Melancholy was associated with Saturn, winter, the dragon, lead, and earth.<\/p>\n
In Cranach\u2019s painting, melancholy seems to be linked to something negative: a demonic witches\u2019 ride takes place in a black cloud outside. \u00a0Perhaps Cranach\u2019s\u00a0Melancholy\u00a0reflects his friend Martin Luther\u2019s perception of melancholy as a \u201dbath of Satan\u201d to be fought with \u201dspiritual joy\u201d and faith in the Word of God.<\/p>\n
Whatever the case may be, the enigmatic nature of Cranach\u2019s painting leaves it open to individual interpretation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With only a stick to help them, three nude boy children attempt to play a game, the object of which is to pass a large ball through a hoop. \u00a0A winged woman, lost in thought, splits a stick, seemingly in the process of making another hoop. Through reference to a similar figure in an Albrecht … Continue reading Melancholy<\/span>