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The Fountain of Youth
Lucas Cranach the Elder · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)
- Date
- 1546
- Dimensions
- 120.6 x 186.1 cm
- Medium
- Oil on lime panel
- Location
- Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany
The Fountain of Youth shows a miraculous pool that restores youth. On the left, old and sick women are brought in carts, wheelbarrows and on people's backs; they step into the water and emerge on the right as beautiful young women.
A closer look
The picture reads like a story from left to right. Wrinkled women, weary and bent, are helped into a large pool fed by a fountain topped with statues of Venus and Cupid. In the water they gradually become young, and on the right they are welcomed by an elegant courtier into a tent where they are dressed in fine clothes. Beyond, couples dance, feast and flirt in a meadow. Notably, only women are rejuvenated; the men are already young. The painting combines fantasy, humour and a touch of satire on vanity.