A Faun and His Family with a Slain Lion

A family of fauns gathers in a woodland clearing: the father sits on a rock with his staff, the slain lion he has brought down lying at his feet, and gazes toward his wife and children across the glade. Cranach drew on both native German legend — the “wild man” of medieval myth — and the idyllic forest dwellers of Greek poetry, setting the little family against dark foliage that parts on a luminous vista of lake, village, mountains and castle. The faun’s animal traits speak for the wild side of mankind, while his human appearance, the woman’s calm bearing and the child’s tender gesture suggest the pull of civilization, isolated and protected from it in their green retreat. The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.