Melancholia I - Definition and Overview

Albrecht Dürer's engraving Melancholia I (originally known by Dürer as Melencolia I) is notable for being an allegorical depiction of the main symptoms of Melancholy, now better known as depression.

Allusions and imagery used by Dürer in Melancholia I:

• The numbers in the top right form a magic square, with the two middle cells of the bottom row giving the date of the engraving: 1514.
• the significance of the truncated cube has been the subject of numerous articles
• The despondent winged figure of genius
• The tools of geometry and architecture surround her, unused
• The purse and keys
• The comet and rainbow in the sky
• etc.

External links

• A larger version of Melancholia I (http://www.princeton.edu/~his291/Durer_Melancolia.html)
• A discussion of Dürer's studies of polyhedra (http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/durer.html)
• Article on the use of symbolism in Melancholia I (http://www.wfu.edu/academics/art/pc/pc-durer-melencolia.html)
• Another set of interpretations of imagery in Melancholia I (http://www.museum.cornell.edu/HFJ/handbook/hb107.html)
• And another... (http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/d/durer/2/13/4/079.html)
• "Dürer's Melancholia": a sonnet (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/2000/d/dowden53.html) by Edward Dowden