Melancholia I

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Albrecht Dürer's engraving, entitled Melencolia I, often known as Melancholia I (using the modern spelling) is an allegorical composition which has been the subject of very many interpretations. It is one of the most famous old master prints, and has sometimes been regarded as forming one of a conscious group of meisterstreich with his St Jerome in his study(1514) and the Knight, Death and the Devil(1513).

It has been the subject of more modern interpretation than almost any other image in art, including a two volume book by Peter-Klaus Schuster, and a very influential discussion in his Dürer monograph by Erwin Panofsky. It should be noted that reproduction usually makes the image seem darker than it is in an original impression (copy) of the engraving, and in particular affects the facial expression of the female figure, which is rather more cheerful than in most reproductions.

The title comes from the (unusually spelled) title, Melencolia I, appearing within the engraving itself. It is the only one of Dürer's engravings to have a title in the plate. The date of 1514 appears in the bottom row of the magic square, as well as above Dürer's monogram at bottom right. Suggestions that a series of engravings on the subject was planned are not generally accepted. Instead it seems more likely that the "I" refers to the first of the three types of melancholy defined by the German humanist writer Cornelius Agrippa. In this type, Melencholia Imaginativa, which he held artists to be subject to, 'imagination' predominates over 'mind' or 'reason'.

The most obvious interpretation takes the image to be about the depressive or melancholy state and accordingly explains various elements of the picture. Among the most conspicuous are:

Melancholia I, an allegorical engraving by Albrecht Dürer

The tools of geometry and architecture surround him, unused
The 4 × 4 magic square, with the two middle cells of the bottom row giving the date of the engraving: 1514.
The truncated rhombohedron which has been the subject of numerous articles
The hourglass showing time running out
The unbalanced scale despite lack of contained substance
The despondent winged figure of genius
The purse and keys
The comet and rainbow in the sky
Mathematical knowledge is referenced by the use of the symbols: compass, geometrical solid, magic square, scale, hourglass