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| PC1970-73 Albrecht Dürer Melencolia I 1514 engraving 9 3/8" x 7 3/8" |
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| In
the years 1513 and 1514, Albrecht Dürer completed what is now
known
together as the "meisterstiche", or "master engravings". Of
these
three engravings, Knight, Death and the Devil, St. Jerome
in
his Study, and Melencolia I, the latter has presented art
historians
with the most enigmatic iconology. Erwin Panofsky has presented the
most
thorough documentation on the engraving. According to Panofsky, Melencolia
I is a personification of melancholy, as it pertains to the concept
of the four humors , combined with a representation of geometry, as one
of the liberal arts. His findings still stands as perhaps the strongest
argument for Dürer’s intended meaning.1 Recent research, however,
has shed new light on Dürer’s most complex engraving and expands
the
view proposed by Panofsky.
The concept of the four humors was based on the assumption that the body and the mind of man were conditioned by four basic fluids: yellow gall (choler), blood, phlegm, and black gall (melancholy). These, in turn, were supposed to be coessential with the four elements: the four winds, the four seasons, the four times of day, and the four phases of life. Melancholy, the fourth humor, was associated with earth, autumn, the time of evening, and an age of about sixty.2 If this humor dominated a person, it meant he was sluggish, lazy, and unhappy. Before the advent of humanism, melancholy had been represented as a dreaded ailment, the worst of the four humors. To Dürer, however, the melancholic person was not necessarily bound by these traits. Dürer looked at melancholy in the revised sense of the Neo-Platonic school of thought in Florence.3 In this train of thought, melancholy was a divine gift. It could be dangerous, but also capable of leading a person into greatness. It was the delicate balance between madness and genius. The presence of geometry is evident in the tools and objects lying around Melencolia. In the Renaissance, the basis of all philosophy and science was ascribed to geometry; the hourglass, scales and magic square are references to this belief. Saturn, the god of the earth assigned to teach mortals the "measurement and quantity of things,"4 has been traditionally linked to the melancholic humor. To Dürer, geometry was the "theoretical insight" that guided the master artist in his craft.5 Yet in Melencolia I, the woman is unable to freely practice any art; the union of theory and practice required to do so evades her. She sits staring in a penetrating and thoughtful gaze, lacking the will or reason to actively make use of the surrounding items. Therefore, Dürer’s engraving is a representation of the "artist’s melancholy". Based on the writings of Agrippa of Nettesheim, which state that melancholy can affect genius in the three levels of "imagination", "reason", and "mind", the reason for Melencolia’s inactivity becomes apparent. She is the artist who can excel in the first level of "imagination", denoted by the "I" on the bat’s wing, but who, because of the limits of time and space, cannot attain the higher levels of thinking. Basically, she rejects what she can do, because she cannot do what she desires.6 Each of the objects in the engraving can be identified as symbolic of either melancholy or geometry. It is these objects or symbols, however, that have provided alternative interpretations of Panofsky’s research. The bat and dog have traditionally been viewed as symbols of melancholy, because of their behaviors. The dog was considered to be intelligent, and an inward thinker. The bat, because of its nocturnal nature, was seen as melancholic. This is the view that Panofsky takes. Another theory explains that the title Melencolia I refers to the bat itself. In opposition to the putto, the bat symbolizes the malignant form of melancholy, while the putto represents the "noble" melancholy.7 Panofsky also pointed to the fact that melancholics were described as being dark persons, in the literal and figurative sense, which explains a cast shadow on the face of Melencolia. Herbert van Einem has taken this concept further. To him, melancholy’s connection with night and darkness is very important. Saturn, who was the planet of night, together with the twilight appearance in the engraving, point to the "avowal of the dark hour that precedes every creative act".8 Some of the most interesting research has been based on the geometrical figure to the right of Melencolia. David Lynch has proposed that the shape is a very elaborate optical illusion. It is made to appear as though it is a truncated cube, with 90 degree angles, but in reality, it has no 90 degree angles at all. As Lynch interprets it, this is Dürer’s way of saying that man’s faith should not be placed in earthly things, only in the certainty of the heavenly realm.9 Other attempts have been made to completely restructure the iconography of Dürer’s print, based on the Renaissance man’s view of science and knowledge, redefining and adding to the meanings that Panofsky proposed. 10 The fact that Melencolia I still presents and iconological enigma is testimony to the engraving’s powerful statement. It’s true meaning may never be discovered. Perhaps Dürer wanted it that way. B.H.,K.H. 1.
Panofsky, 1955; Klibansky, Panofsky and Saxl, 1964.
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