Melancholia I

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Melancholia I

Albrecht Dürer, 1514

engraving, 31 × 26 cm

Melencolia I, often known as Melancholia I (using the modern spelling) is an engraving by the German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. It is an allegorical composition which has been the subject of very many interpretations. One of the most famous old master prints, it 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:

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,^[1], 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

One interpretation of this woodcut is that it represents the frustrations of an individual trying to invent something ingenious but failing at the task, and feeling depression or melancholy as a result. In the woodcut are various symbols of scientific reasoning, such as numerical patterns (the number square) and scientific measuring tools (the weight balance and the hour-glass for precise time measurement). A hammer represents a tool that would be used to manufacture an actual product based on the ingenius idea. The dog and the baby angel represent those who patiently encourage the genius, but eventually fall asleep, bored, after waiting hours for the genius to come up with a new idea. The frustrated genius lies awake in the after hours, determined not to sleep until the new idea arrives. For Durer, thinking ingeniously is inextricably linked to thinking scientifically, and the emotional frustration of failing to conceive of a new idea is inextricably linked to melancholy. In the distance, a bright and optimistic sun symbolizes the ideal world that the genius could help make accessible if he or she conceived of a great new idea. That sun is also setting, symbolizing that hours have passed and the genius still has not conceived of anything new. Durer places three shapes in his engraving--a sphere, an irregular three-dimensional polyhedron, and a wheel--that symbolize the thought process of genius. The sphere represents a stereotypically perfect concept or mathematical form, something that is conceptually obvious and conceptually commonplace; the genius sees these kinds of "obvious," symettrical forms every day and understands that he or she must think "outside of the box" and come up with an idea that is not obvious like these symmetrical, pre-existing forms. The wheel (on which the baby angel is sitting) represents a successful product of genius; scientifically definable, useful, innovative, it serves as an object of inspiration for the genius; it symbolizes the genius's goal: ideally to create something as useful as the wheel. The irregular polyhedron symbolizes an unrefined intermediate product of genius. It is conceptually more original than the sphere, but is not as useful or as scientifically defined as the wheel. Perhaps with further conceptual refinement, the genius can turn this irregular form into something as practical, useful and ingenius as the wheel. But, for now, the genius has run out of ideas, and may conclude that the irregular polyhedron has no further potential as an idea and must be discarded and an entirely new idea persued. The bell in the top right hand corner symbolizes the alarm that would be rung to triumphantly announce to the entire world that a new idea has been invented, if, that is, the genius is able to emerge from the state of frustration and finally invent that new idea. For the time being, the bell is silent and all are asleep, except for the frustrated, still-determined genius.^{[citation needed]}