Melencolia I is a large 1514 engraving by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. Its central subject is an enigmatic and gloomy winged female figure thought to be a personification of melancholia – melancholy.

Albrecht Dürer’s enigmatic Melencolia I has inspired and provoked viewers for nearly half a millennium. The evident subject of the engraving, as written upon the scroll unfurled by a flying batlike creature, is melencolia—melancholy.

Dürer's Melencolia I is one of three large prints of 1513 and 1514 known as his Meisterstiche (master engravings). The other two are Knight, Death, and the Devil (43.106.2) and Saint Jerome in His Study (19.73.68).

In the background a rainbow arches over a bright beacon beside a banner labeled “Melencolia I”. One of the most famous elements of this painting is the irregular rhombohedron that dominates the mid-ground of the painting.

Dürer’s famed Melencolia engraving of 1514 has been called the artist’s psychological self-portrait, and indeed the image does convey the terrible struggle of high expectations and debilitating inertia, when excessive introspection paralyzes the imagination.

Jun 16, 2014 · Nadine Orenstein, curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints, discusses Albrecht Dürer's Melencolia I (1514), a masterpiece of engraving whose imagery has fascinated artists, historians, scientists, and mathematicians for centuries.

One of Albrecht Durer's trio of woodcuts that were known as the Apocalypse woodcuts and arguably his most well-known work, Melencolia I was created in 1514 and was the final piece. This followed other two works - Knight, Death and the Devil and Saint Jerome in His Study.

Dürer personifies melancholy as a formidable female—her power originates in her ability to alter a man’s temperament into a melancholic state. Immobilized by her lack of creativity, the winged...

In 1513-1514, Dürer made three "master engravings ", similar in format, among them Melencolia I, whose enigmatic symbols and multifarious meanings have made it one of the most often discussed...

Jan 10, 2025 · Dürer personifies melancholy as a formidable female—her power originates in her ability to alter a man’s temperament into a melancholic state. Immobilized by her lack of creativity, the winged goddess sits dispiritedly surrounded by the tools and instruments she has lost the inspiration to use.