Melancholia I, Engraving by Albrecht Durer

Melancholia I by Albrecht Durer, 1514, is perhaps the finest copper plate engraving ever produced and is at the pinnacle of Durer’s production in complexity, fineness of technique, and density of meanings. A winged angel sits in melancholy meditation, holding a book and compass. Surrounding him are stones carved into geometric forms, a wheel, and sphere. The room is littered with the tools of the stone carver and sculptor, with carpenters plane and saw. Above him is an hourglass passing time, a bell, and a “magic square” of numbers that sum the same in all directions. A dog and putto doze beside the angel. The firm, decisive drawing in the metal plate capture light, shadow, form and texture in a tour de force of the printmaking medium that addresses the ultimate enigmas of the creation of art. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was a German painter of the Northern Renaissance and also an engraver, printmaker, mathematician and theorist whose woodcut prints and theoretical treatises secured his reputation as one of the greatest artists of Europe. His many paintings, portraits, altarpieces, watercolors, and engravings were the first in the Northern Renaissance to use classical motifs from antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. The art of landscape painting began with his watercolors. Durer’s unparalleled skill in drawing and engraving as well as mastery of perspective allowed him rapid execution of a range of motifs which elicit universal admiration to this day.