Melencolia I
1514 · Engraving · National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
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About this work
- Artist
- Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)
- Year
- 1514
- Medium
- Engraving
- Original size
- 24.2 × 18.8 cm
- Collection
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- Movement
- Northern Renaissance
- Series
- Meisterstiche (Master Engravings)
A heavy winged woman sits with her head in her hand and a compass idle in her lap, staring past a scatter of tools: a plane, a saw, nails, a sphere, a large truncated stone polyhedron and a sleeping dog, while a small winged child scribbles beside her. On the wall behind hang scales, an hourglass, a bell and a magic square whose rows and columns all add up to 34, with the date 1514 in its bottom row; a ladder leads out of the picture, and in the sky a comet and a rainbow light a bat-like creature carrying a banner with the title. Dürer engraved the plate in Nuremberg in 1514, and it is grouped with Knight, Death and the Devil and Saint Jerome in His Study, all the same size, as his three Master Engravings. No interpretation has been settled; the best known, Erwin Panofsky's, reads it as the melancholy of the creative mind that cannot act on what it imagines. This impression, signed with his monogram and dated in the plate, is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
This full-bleed edition prints the work edge to edge from a high-resolution scan of the original, very slightly cropped (a few percent at most) to fit the sheet. The gallery edition shows the whole work, uncropped. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A brooding winged figure among tools, a polyhedron and a magic square in fine black engraved line on cream, for a study, library or home office at 18×24 in black. A white, warm grey or deep green wall; it pairs with The Astronomer.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Northern Renaissance painting
- Era
- 16th century (1514)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- black & white
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- study or library, home office, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 18×24. Prints at 12×16, 18×24 in — 12×16 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 18×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Melencolia I in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Melencolia I painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
