Melencolia I

Melencolia I is a 1514 engraving by the German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. It is an allegorical composition which has been the subject of many interpretations. One of the most famous old master prints, it has sometimes been regarded as forming one of a conscious group of Meisterstiche with his Knight, Death and the Devil (1513) and Saint Jerome in his Study (1514).

Interpretations

The work has been the subject of more modern interpretation than almost any other print,^[1] including a two-volume book by Peter-Klaus Schuster,^[2] and a very influential discussion in his Dürer monograph by Erwin Panofsky.^[3] 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 (archaically 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 melancholia 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'.

Durer's image was distributed widely, and travelled as far away as India, where the Mughal miniaturist Farrukh Beg referenced the work in his 1615 miniature The Old Sufi.^[4]

One interpretation suggests the image references 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 the figure, unused
• The 4 × 4 magic square, with the two middle cells of the bottom row giving the date of the engraving: 1514. This 4x4 magic square, as well as having traditional magic square rules, its four quadrants, corners and centers equal the same number, 34, which happens to belong to the Fibonacci sequence.
• The truncated rhombohedron^[5] with a faint human skull on it. This shape is now known as Dürer's solid; over the years, there have been numerous articles disputing the precise shape of this polyhedron^[6])
• The hourglass showing time running out
• The empty scale (balance)
• The despondent winged figure of genius
• The purse and keys
• The beacon and rainbow in the sky
• Mathematical knowledge is referenced by the use of the symbols: compass, geometrical solid, magic square, scale, hourglass.

Notes

References

• Brion, Marcel. Dürer. London: Thames and Hudson, 1960
• Nürnberg, Verlag Hans Carl. Dürer in Dublin: Engravings and woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer. Chester Beatty Library, 1983
• Ewald Lassnig, Dürers "MELENCOLIA-I" und die Erkenntnistheorie bei Ulrich Pinder; in: Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 2008, S. 51-95
• Ernst Th. Mayer: Melencolia § I – der "angelo terrestre" und sein gleichzeitiges doppeltes Sehvermögen. Befunderhebung aufgrund der visuellen Geometrie von Dürers verschlüsseltem Selbstbildnis (1514). In: Musik-,Tanz- und Kunsttherapie, Vol. 20, 2009, Nr. 1, S. 8–22.

External links

• Wake Forest University - Article on the use of symbolism in Melancholia I
• [1]- Additions and diverging definitions including a video of Dürer's Solid