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Game of the goose
The domestic cat
Family of the satyr with obelisk
Fishing rod
Martin Schongauer
The Knight, Death and the Devil
Flowered and illustrated woodblock paper
Perspective view of Venice
Melencolia
Slab under the window
Four virtues
Broth cup with episodes of Napoleonic history
Rooster-shaped soup tureen
The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, Apollo and the Muses
Vase
Psyche
Neo Rococo gallantry
Two friends
Dry
Game of the goose
The domestic cat
Family of the satyr with obelisk
Fishing rod
Martin Schongauer
The Knight, Death and the Devil
Flowered and illustrated woodblock paper
Perspective view of Venice
Melencolia
Slab under the window
Four virtues
Broth cup with episodes of Napoleonic history
Rooster-shaped soup tureen
The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, Apollo and the Muses
Vase
Psyche
Neo Rococo gallantry
Two friends
Dry

Melencolia

Albrecht Dürer

Displayed in:

Sturm Palace

Sturm Palace

Via Schiavonetti, 40, Bassano del Grappa

Closed now: open at 10:00

Verified profile

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.
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Details

Title: Melencolia

Author: Albrecht Dürer

Date: 1514

Technique: Burin engraving

Displayed in: Sturm Palace

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