Together with the "San Girolamo nella studio" and the "Melencolia I", the burin belongs to the Meisterstiche series, whose execution takes place between 1513 and 1514. In his diary, Dürer names the print the "Knight" but the presence of other figures suggests a more complex iconography. The artist was probably inspired by Erasmus of Rotterdam's Enchiridion militis christiani, where the good Christian is compared to a soldier in the service of God, called to overcome the tests of existence thanks to faith. The armed knight riding his steed, flanked by Death and with the Devil behind him, would therefore allude to the path of the faithful towards God, symbolized by the castle in the distance, through the difficulties of life. The dog would mean religious faith and zeal. The figure of an armed knight also appears in an early Albertina drawing, very close to the engraved version. In the preparatory studies preserved in Milan, greater attention is paid to the anatomy and movement of the horse, on the basis of the proportions established by Leonardo.

This magnificent burin, with an elusive meaning, is the most intriguing and complex of those that make up the Meisterstiche series, fired in the period between 1513 and 1514 which, despite the almost identical format, apparently have nothing in common as regards the iconographic aspect. In the twilight, illuminated by a comet, a winged girl sits on a terrace surrounded by various kinds of objects. One hand is resting on his head, in a thoughtful attitude, and with the other he is holding a compass. A dog sleeps at his feet and a cherub sits on a millstone. Behind it appears a strange building that flanks a body of water above which a bat shows a scroll with the words "MELENCOLIA I". The subject has been at the center of numerous interpretations, the most famous of which belongs to Erwin Panofsky. His iconological reading relies on the Neoplatonic theories of Cornelio Agrippa of Nettesheim, according to which the melancholy mood corresponds to the creative fury. Furthermore, Panofsky identifies in the girl the allegory of Geometry on the basis of drawing tools, the sphere and stereometric models: objects that Schuster associates, instead, with Astronomy. According to a recent hypothesis, the work would allude to Philosophia, in the climate of the humanistic renovatio promoted by Maximilian I. Among the numerous drawings in connection with this engraving there is one in pen of 1514 with the first sketch of the female figure, although different from the version the final. Other isolated studies, but much closer to engraving, concern the winged genius, the dog and some objects.