Melancholy I
Albrecht Durer
Albrecht Dürer was a painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was still in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints.
Max Resolution:4918×6257 PX
Title:Melancholy I
Artists:Albrecht Durer
Date:1514
Style:Northern Renaissance
Genre:allegorical painting
Medium:engraving
Location:Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Dimensions:18.8×24 cm
Copyright:Public domain
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 ("master prints") with his Knight, Death and the Devil (1513) and Saint Jerome in his Study (1514).
The engraving measures 24 × 18.8cm.
The work has been the subject of more modern interpretation than almost any other print, including a two-volume book by Peter-Klaus Schuster, and a very influential discussion in Erwin Panofsky's Dürer monograph. The (archaically spelled) title Melencolia I appears within the engraving itself. It is the only one of Dürer's engravings to have a title in the plate. The date 1514 appears in the bottom row of the magic square, and also above Dürer's monogram at bottom right. It is 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'.
One interpretation suggests the image references the depressive or melancholy state and accordingly explains various elements of the picture. Among the most conspicuous are:
An autobiographical interpretation of Melencolia I has been suggested by several historians. Iván Fenyő considered the print a representation of the artist beset by a loss of confidence, saying: "shortly before [Dürer] drew Melancholy, he wrote: 'what is beautiful I do not know' ... Melancholy is a lyric confession, the self-conscious introspection of the Renaissance artist, unprecedented in northern art. Erwin Panofsky is right in considering this admirable plate the spiritual self-portrait of Dürer."
Dürer's Melencolia is the patroness of the City of Dreadful Night in the final canto of James Thomson's poem of that name.
The engraving measures 24 × 18.8cm.
The work has been the subject of more modern interpretation than almost any other print, including a two-volume book by Peter-Klaus Schuster, and a very influential discussion in Erwin Panofsky's Dürer monograph. The (archaically spelled) title Melencolia I appears within the engraving itself. It is the only one of Dürer's engravings to have a title in the plate. The date 1514 appears in the bottom row of the magic square, and also above Dürer's monogram at bottom right. It is 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'.
One interpretation suggests the image references the depressive or melancholy state and accordingly explains various elements of the picture. Among the most conspicuous are:
An autobiographical interpretation of Melencolia I has been suggested by several historians. Iván Fenyő considered the print a representation of the artist beset by a loss of confidence, saying: "shortly before [Dürer] drew Melancholy, he wrote: 'what is beautiful I do not know' ... Melancholy is a lyric confession, the self-conscious introspection of the Renaissance artist, unprecedented in northern art. Erwin Panofsky is right in considering this admirable plate the spiritual self-portrait of Dürer."
Dürer's Melencolia is the patroness of the City of Dreadful Night in the final canto of James Thomson's poem of that name.