The Nymph at the Fountain

The Latin on the pale tablet at top left reads, roughly, I am the nymph of the sacred spring, do not break my sleep, I am resting. It is the opening line of a short poem that Italian scholars of the late 1400s copied into their collections of Roman inscriptions. One compiler even reported it carved beneath a statue of a sleeping nymph on the banks of the Danube. It was passed around as a genuine ancient text, and today the verses are usually credited to the 15th-century humanist Giovanni Antonio Campano.

Cranach first painted the nymph in 1518, and his workshop went on to make more than 20 versions. In this one, from the early 1530s, her eyes are not quite shut. A transparent veil runs across her body. A bow and quiver hang on the tree, stags rest beyond the pool, and at her feet stand two partridges, birds traditionally linked with Venus.