The dialog then examines the notion that the "useful" is the beautiful, and Dürer wrote in his notes, "Usefulness is a part of beauty. The other two are Knight, Death, and the Devil (43.106.2) and Saint Jerome in His Study (19.73.68). They ask if that which is pleasant to sight and hearing is the beautiful, which Dürer symbolizes by the intense gaze of the figure, and the bell, respectively. 4th St and Constitution Ave NW In his book about Albrecht Durer, John Berger classes Melencolia I and the other two parts of the Apocolypse as constituting "the great high-point in Durer's graphic work".Similarly, art historian Erwin Panofsky claimed that is was the supreme self-portrait of Durer's working life - presumably due to the imagery it conveys. After his return he focused mainly on portraits and small engravings. Melencolia I has been the subject of more scholarship than probably any other print. 1501. He eventually published books on geometry (1525), fortifications (1527), and the theory of human proportions (1528, soon after his death). Her creative frustration renders her unable to accomplish the simplest of tasks, such as feeding the malnourished dog who has grown thin from neglect. [6] The print has two states; in the first, the number nine in the magic square appears backward,[10] but in the second, more common impressions it is a somewhat odd-looking regular nine. © 2021 National Gallery of Art   Notices   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy. At one point the dialog refers to a millstone, an unusually specific object to appear in both sources by coincidence. Melencolia I è un’incisione a bulino realizzata nel 1514 da Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), il più grande degli artisti rinascimentali tedeschi. In an unfinished book for young artists, he cautions that too much exertion may lead one to "fall under the hand of melancholy". [60] Dürer's Melencolia is the patroness of the City of Dreadful Night in the final canto of James Thomson's poem of that name. Behind her, a windowless building with no clear architectural function[22][20] rises beyond the top of the frame. Panofsky believes that it is night, citing the "cast-shadow" of the hourglass on the building, with the moon lighting the scene and creating a lunar rainbow. He wrote, "The vast effort of subsequent interpreters, in all their industry and error, testifies to the efficacy of the print as an occasion for thought. He linked imagination (the first and lowest level) to artistic genius; this may account for the numeral “1” in the title and provide a key for explaining the frustration of the winged figure-cum-artist. Frohe Weihnachten! Circulated widely, these prints established his international reputation. He also rigorously studied intellectual concepts central to the Renaissance: perspective, absolute beauty, proportion, and harmony. Giehlow specialized in the German humanist interest in hieroglyphics and interpreted Melencolia I in terms of astrology, which had been an interest of intellectuals connected to the court of Maximilian in Vienna. Melancholia was traditionally the least desirable of the four temperaments, making for a constitution that was, according to Panofsky, "awkward, miserly, spiteful, greedy, malicious, cowardly, faithless, irreverent and drowsy". Melancholia was thought to attract daemons that produced bouts of frenzy and ecstasy in the afflicted, lifting the mind toward genius. Additionally, the corners and each quadrant sum to 34, as do still more combinations. [38], In 1905, Heinrich Wölfflin called the print an "allegory of deep, speculative thought". In 1513–1514 Dürer produced three exceptional copper engravings—Knight, Death and Devil, Saint Jerome in His Study, and Melencolia I—that have come to be known collectively as the Meisterstiche, or Master Engravings. Giehlow found the print an "erudite summa of these interests, a comprehensive portrayal of the melancholic temperament, its positive and negative values held in perfect balance, its potential for 'genius' suspended between divine inspiration and dark madness". The print's central subject is an enigmatic and gloomy winged female figure thought to be a personification of melancholia - melancholy. Each temperament was also associated with one of the four elements; melancholia was paired with Earth, and was considered "dry and cold" in alchemy. [6] He made a few pencil studies for the engraving and some of his notes relate to it. [15], Panofsky considered but rejected the suggestion that the "I" in the title might indicate that Dürer had planned three other engravings on the four temperaments. Melencolia I Sull’incisione di Albrecht Dürer – parte iI di Federica Campanelli . 6th St and Constitution Ave NW The area is strewn with symbols and tools associated with craft and carpentry, including an hourglass, weighing scales, a hand plane, a claw hammer, and a saw. ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528) Melencolia I engraving, 1514, on laid paper, without watermark, a fine Meder IIa impression, printing with great clarity and intense contrasts, the figure's face printing darkly, trimmed inside the platemark but retaining a fillet of blank paper outside the subject in most places, trimmed on or just inside the platemark below, a narrow strip on the right of the upper sheet edge and … ), 1943.3.3522. Cranach's paintings, however, contrast melancholy with childish gaiety, and in the 1528 painting, occult elements appear. Provenienza: Stati Uniti. [6][13][14] Dürer mentions melancholy only once in his surviving writings. The sky contains a rainbow, a comet or planet, and a bat-like creature bearing the text that has become the print's title. Agrippa classified melancholic inspiration into three ascending levels: imagination, reason, and intellect. The print was taken up in Romantic poetry of the nineteenth century in English and French.[63]. A commonly quoted note refers to the keys and the purse—"Schlüssel—gewalt/pewtell—reichtum beteut" ("keys mean power, purse means wealth")[11]—although this can be read as a simple record of their traditional symbolism. Title: Melencolia I; Creator: Albrecht Dürer; Date Created: 1514; Dürer's engraving is one of the most well-known extant old master prints, but, despite a vast art-historical literature, it has resisted any definitive interpretation. [6] Melencolia I is one of Dürer's three Meisterstiche ("master prints"), along with Knight, Death and the Devil (1513) and St. Jerome in His Study (1514). The print's central subject is an enigmatic and gloomy winged female figure thought to be a personification of melancholia - melancholy. Dürer's Melencolia I is one of three large prints of 1513 and 1514 known as his Meisterstiche (master engravings). wrote that "the meaning of this picture is obvious at first glance; all human activity, practical no less than theoretical, theoretical no less than artistic, is vain, in view of the vanity of all earthly things. Dürer may have associated melancholia with creative activity;[2] the woman may be a representation of a Muse, awaiting inspiration but fearful that it will not return. The art historian Erwin Panofsky, whose writing on the print has received the most attention, detailed its possible relation to Renaissance humanists' conception of melancholia. Joseph Leo Koerner abandoned allegorical readings in his 1993 commentary, describing the engraving as purposely obscure, such that the viewer reflects on their own interpretive labour. A ladder with seven rungs leans against the structure, but neither its beginning nor end is visible. Most art historians view the print as an allegory, assuming that a unified theme can be found in the image if its constituent symbols are "unlocked" and brought into conceptual order. Simultaneously inviting and resisting interpretation, Melencolia I is a testament to Dürer’s extraordinary intellectual ambition and artistic imagination. Their technical virtuosity, intellectual scope, and psychological depth were unmatched by earlier printed work. [6] On the face of the building is a 4×4 magic square—the first printed in Europe[25]—with the two middle cells of the bottom row giving the date of the engraving, 1514, which is also seen above Dürer's monogram at bottom right. [54] Dürer's friendships with humanists enlivened and advanced his artistic projects, building in him the "self-conception of an artist with the power to heal". Erwin Panofsky e Fritz Saxl hanno scritto che Melencolia, I – una delle più celebri incisioni del Rinascimento – è l’“autoritratto spirituale” del suo autore, il pittore tedesco Albrecht Dürer. [31] There is little tonal contrast and, despite its stillness, a sense of chaos, a "negation of order",[20] is noted by many art historians. The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity. Albrecht Dürer, quoted in Erwin Panofsky, Albrecht Dürer (Princeton University Press, 1943), vol. [11] Ficino and Agrippa's writing gave melancholia positive connotations, associating it with flights of genius. Alla trattazione fisionomica diremmo "classica" che Dürer fa della Melanconia, si affiancano alcuni attributi fin'ora estranei alla tradizione iconografica. Source Ryan Gregg Assistant Professor, Department of Art, Webster University. Melencolia I is by far the most complex of the three master engravings. [7], The print contains numerous references to mathematics and geometry. Melencolia I 1514 Engraving, 239 x 189 mm Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe: Dürer's greatest achievement in printmaking were the three engravings of 1513-14, regarded as his masterpieces. Closed, Sculpture Garden È una delle tesi portanti del saggio che essi dedicarono all’opera nel 1923, La «Melencolia I» di Dürer. Spotlight Essay: Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I, 1514 September 2011; updated 2016. Stay up to date about our exhibitions, news, programs, and special offers. Interpreting the engraving itself becomes a detour to self-reflection. Carpentry tools are scattered on the ground. Saint Jerome and Melencolia may be informal pendants; Saint Jerome’s clarity, light, and order contrast markedly with Melencolia’s brooding angst, nocturnal setting, and disorderly arrangement. Merback, 47–48 (Merback's summary of Schuster quoted), "Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and the Devil, a copperplate engraving", Dürers "Melencolia I": eine quellen- und typengeschichtliche Untersuchung, "The magic square on the Passion façade: keys to understanding it", Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate, Portrait of the Artist's Mother at the Age of 63, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Melencolia_I&oldid=999511515, All articles with links needing disambiguation, Articles with links needing disambiguation from August 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 10 January 2021, at 15:39. [32], In contrast with Saint Jerome in His Study, which has a strong sense of linear perspective and an obvious source of light, Melencolia I is disorderly and lacks a "visual center". Download this artwork (provided by The Metropolitan Museum of Art). EUR 121,35. Clevelandart 1926.211.jpg 2,693 × 3,400; 7.68 MB This assumption has been challenged, such as by Hoffman, summarized in Merback, 43. [37] Others see the ambiguity as intentional and unresolvable. Prints by Hans Sebald Beham (1539) and Jost Amman (1589) are clearly related. [33] It has few perspective lines leading to the vanishing point (below the bat-like creature at the horizon), which divides the diameter of the rainbow in the golden ratio. Melancolia (Melencolia § I) è un incisione al bulino di Albrecht Dürer (Norimberga 1471-1528). [62], The Renaissance historian Frances Yates believed George Chapman's 1594 poem The Shadow of Night to be influenced by Durer's print, and Robert Burton described it in his The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621). [59][60] They share elements with Melencolia I such as a winged, seated woman, a sleeping or sitting dog, a sphere, and varying numbers of children playing, likely based on Durer's Putto. "[5] Panofsky's studies in German and English, between 1923 and 1964 and sometimes with coauthors, have been especially influential. Five Landsknechte and an Oriental Man on Horseback, Albrecht Dürer, ... 1490 Dürer may have been the first printmaker to engrave a group of Landsknechte, a theme that proved exceedingly popular, as the adjoining prints by Urs Graf, Master M. Z., and Daniel Hopfer confirm. Categories. [33], Dürer's friend and first biographer Joachim Camerarius wrote the earliest account of the engraving in 1541. In front of the dog lies a perfect sphere, which has a radius equal to the apparent distance marked by the figure's compass. Others see the "I" as a reference to nigredo, the first stage of the alchemical process. Instead of mediating a meaning, Melencolia seems designed to generate multiple and contradictory readings, to clue its viewers to an endless exegetical labor until, exhausted in the end, they discover their own portrait in Dürer's sleepless, inactive personification of melancholy. The square is rotated and one number in each row and column is reduced by one so the rows and columns add up to 33 instead of the standard 34 for a 4x4 magic square. albrecht durer's engraving "melencolia 1" done in 1514 is a celebration of the triumph of jupiter over saturn's loss of control over the melancholy spirit setting her free. Despairing of the limits of human knowledge, she is paralyzed and unable to create, as the discarded and unused tools suggest. Renaissance thought, however, revamped the status of the dreaded humor by connecting it to creative genius as well as madness. Media in category "Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer" The following 37 files are in this category, out of 37 total. Of all the works he created, Melencolia I is a controversial allegorical work. [7][8] The prints are considered thematically related by some art historians, depicting labours that are intellectual (Melencolia I), moral (Knight), or spiritual (St. Jerome) in nature. [52] In the 1980s, scholars began to focus on the inherent contradictions of the print, finding a mismatch between "intention and result" in the interpretive effort it seemingly required. Albrecht Dürer, quoted in Erwin Panofsky. [9] While Dürer sometimes distributed Melencolia I with St. Jerome in His Study, there is no evidence that he conceived of them as a thematic group. Despite having recently converted to Lutheranism, he attended the coronation of the ultra-Catholic Emperor Charles V in Aachen. It is also associative, meaning that any number added to its symmetric opposite equals 17 (e.g., 15+2, 9+8). [43][44] Even the distant seascape, with small islands of flooded trees, relates to Saturn, the "lord of the sea", and his control of floods and tides. The evident subject of the engraving, as written upon the scroll unfurled by a flying batlike creature, is melencolia—melancholy. The "botched" polyhedron in the engraving therefore symbolises a failure to understand beauty, and the figure, standing in for the artist, is in a gloom as a result. One of Dürer’s three “master engravings,” Melencolia I has been linked by scholars to alchemy, astrology, theology, and philosophy, among other themes. The image is available via Institutional Open Content, and tagged Print, Melancholy and Angels. Department. The evident subject of the engraving, as written upon the scroll unfurled by a flying batlike creature, is melencolia—melancholy. In 1513 and 1514, Dürer experienced the death of a number of friends, followed by his mother (whose portrait he drew in this period), engendering a grief that may be expressed in this engraving. La perfezione di terapia: un saggio sul Albrecht Dürer'S melencolia I, copertina rigida B.. Nuovo (Altro) EUR 33,12. Back in Nuremberg, where he largely stayed until 1520, Dürer alternated between periods focusing on painting and graphic work. N. 84 - Dicembre 2014 (CXV). Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded. He married Holper, his master's daughter, when he himself qualified as a master. Melencolia I is a Northern Renaissance Engraving Print created by Albrecht Dürer in 1514. The objects she has at hand are associated with geometry and measurement, fields of knowledge that were considered the building blocks of artistic creation and that Dürer studied doggedly in his quest to theorize absolute beauty. Dürer was exposed to a variety of literature that may have influenced the engraving by his friend and collaborator, the humanist Willibald Pirckheimer, who also translated from Greek. Since the ancient Greeks, the health and temperament of an individual were thought to be determined by the four humors: black bile (melancholic humor), yellow bile (choleric), phlegm (phlegmatic), and blood (sanguine). Holding her head in her hand, she stares past the busy scene in front of her. [31] This shape is now known as Dürer's solid, and over the years, there have been numerous analyses of its mathematical properties. In astrology, each temperament was under the influence of a planet, Saturn in the case of melancholia. Melencolia I is a 1514 engraving by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. "[49], Autobiography runs through many of the interpretations of Melencolia I, including Panofsky's. It may be a general allegory of depression or melancholy. He executed several commissions for paintings and began to print and publish his own woodcuts and engravings. The mysterious light source at right, which illuminates the image, is unusually placed for Dürer and contributes to the "airless, dreamlike space". The lie is in our understanding, and darkness is so firmly entrenched in our mind that even our groping will fail. La Melencolia di Dürer Una scheda di Vittorio Sgarbi dedicata al capolavoro di Albrecht Dürer conservato nella collezione permanente della Fondazione Magnani Rocca. But what Dürer intended by the term, and how the print’s mysterious figures and perplexing objects contribute to its meaning, continue to be debated. [6], Agrippa defined three types of melancholic genius in his De occulta philosophia. NEL TEMPO MELENCOLIA 1 ALBRECHT DÜRER Melencolia 1 (1514)TECNICA: stampa da un’incisione su lastra di metalloDIMENSIONI: 23,9×28,9 cmCUSTODITO PRESSO: Galleria statale d’arte di Karlsrühe, in Germania.L’opera è ricca di antichi simboli enigmatici. In 1991, Peter-Klaus Schuster published Melencolia I: Dürers Denkbild,[51] an exhaustive history of the print's interpretation in two volumes. In the engraving, symbols of geometry, measurement, and trades are numerous: the compass, the scale, the hammer and nails, the plane and saw, the sphere and the unusual polyhedron. On the low wall behind the large polyhedron is a brazier with a goldsmith's crucible and a pair of tongs. A putto seated on a millstone writes on a tablet while below, an emaciated dog sleeps between a sphere and a truncated polyhedron. Image Download Non è fissa su un oggetto che non esiste, ma su un problema che non può essere risolto”: così Erwin Panofsky descrive l’incisione di Albrecht Dürer “Melencolia I”. The figure wears a wreath of "wet" plants to counteract the dryness of melancholy, and she has the dark face and dishevelled appearance associated with the melancholic. italiana e inglese Huober Silvia, Pazzagli Adolfo, L'esoterismo di Albrecht Dürer. Merback notes that ambiguities remain even after the interpretation of numerous individual symbols: the viewer does not know if it is daytime or twilight, where the figures are located, or the source of illumination. In 1513–1514 Dürer produced his three “master engravings,” including Melencolia I. Alleged to suffer from an excess of black bile, melancholics were thought to be especially prone to insanity. She rests her head on her left hand and toys with a caliper (resembling a compass) in her right. Yet struggle as she might intellectually, she is powerless to transcend the earthbound realm of imagination to attain the higher stages of abstract thought (an idea to which the ladder that extends beyond the image may allude). A set of keys and a purse hang from the belt of her long dress. Provenienza: Stati Uniti +EUR 63,06 di spedizione. By the time of his second trip to Italy, 1505–1507, he was the most celebrated German artist of the period. Lettere da Venezia 2007, Mondadori Electa: Dalle opere di Albrecht Dürer. Erwin Panofsky is right in considering this admirable plate the spiritual self-portrait of Dürer."[50]. 1, 171. She is winged but cannot fly. https://www.facebook.com/escuelacienciacuantica/photos/pcb.119030716719256/119015260054135 1, 171. S i tratta della più celebre incisione di Dürer, in stretto rapporto con il San Gerolamo nello studio dello stesso anno. Some scholars have interpreted the master engravings as complementary examples of different virtues—moral (the Knight), theological (Saint Jerome), and intellectual (Melencolia). As Agrippa's study was published in 1531, Panofsky assumes that Dürer had access to a manuscript. Closed, East Building The exceptional drawing An Oriental Ruler Seated on His Throne is one result of this youthful journey. L’opera, densa di riferimenti esoterici, tra cui il quadrato magico, è una delle incisioni più famose in assoluto. Dürer spent a year in the Netherlands (1520–1521), where he was moved by the recognition accorded him by artists and dignitaries. Lucas Cranach the Elder used its motifs in numerous paintings between 1528 and 1533. Albrecht Dürer; Object Type / Material. [17], The winged, androgynous central figure is thought to be a personification of melancholia or geometry. [22] The ladder leaning against the structure has no obvious beginning or end, and the structure overall has no obvious function. [16] He suggested instead that the "I" referred to the first of three types of melancholy defined by Cornelius Agrippa (see Interpretation). Numerous unused tools and mathematical instruments are scattered around, including a hammer and nails, a saw, a plane, pincers, a straightedge, a molder's form, and either the nozzle of a bellows or an enema syringe (clyster). [11] Reflecting the medieval iconographical depiction of melancholy, she rests her head on a closed fist. The National Gallery of Art and Sculpture Garden are temporarily closed. Other objects relate to alchemy, geometry or numerology. Drawings and Prints; Artist / Maker / Culture. The unusual polyhedron destabilizes the image by blocking some of the view into the distance and sending the eye in different directions. From ancient Greek times through the Middle Ages, melancholy was considered the least desirable of the four humors that were believed to govern human temperament. [47] The first, melancholia imaginativa, affected artists, whose imaginative faculty was considered stronger than their reason (compared with, e.g., scientists) or intuitive mind (e.g., theologians). Woodcut after an 1803 drawing by Caspar David Friedrich[62]. He visited Venice, Florence, and Rome, studying the Italian masters and producing important paintings of his own. Unlike many of his other prints, these engravings, large by Dürer’s standards, were intended more for connoisseurs and collectors than for popular devotion. The distinctive three-dimensional shape in Albrecht Dürer’s 1514 engraving Melencolia I has been the subject of innumerous analyses and still no one is sure what it is or what it means. Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death, and Devil, 1513, engraving on laid paper, 1941.1.20, Albrecht Dürer, Saint Jerome in His Study, 1514, engraving on laid paper, 1949.1.11, Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I, 1514, engraving, 1949.1.17, Albrecht Dürer, Self-portrait with gloves at age 26, 1498, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain, Photo Credit: Scala / Art Resource, NY. She can invent and build, and she can think ... but she has no access to the metaphysical world.... [She] belongs in fact to those who 'cannot extend their thought beyond the limits of space.' Albrecht Dürer, Autoritratto con fiore d'eringio (1493) Albrecht Dürer (AFI: [ˈʔalbʁɛçt ˈdyːʁɐ]), in italiano arcaico noto anche come Alberto Duro o Durero (Norimberga, 21 maggio 1471 – Norimberga, 6 aprile 1528) è stato un pittore, incisore, matematico e trattatista tedesco.