Knowra Melencolia I Melencolia I A 1514 engraving by Albrecht Dürer depicts a winged, pensive figure among instruments associated with geometry, measurement, and artistic labor. Its dense symbolism has made it one of the most interpreted prints of the Northern Renaissance.
Albrecht Dürer : A German Renaissance artist known for prints, paintings, and theoretical writings. Dürer made the engraving and embedded his concerns with artistic knowledge in its imagery.
Polyhedron : A three-dimensional solid bounded by flat polygonal faces. The large faceted solid anchors the image and invites competing geometric identifications.
Willibald Pirckheimer : A German humanist, lawyer, and close friend of Albrecht Dürer. His humanist learning formed part of the intellectual milieu in which Dürer worked.
Dürer's Rhinoceros : A 1515 woodcut by Albrecht Dürer depicting a rhinoceros he had never seen. It contrasts the engraving’s allegorical density with Dürer’s famous image built from secondhand description.
Iconography : The study of the subjects, symbols, and conventional meanings represented in works of art. The print’s objects invite iconographic readings but resist a single settled interpretation.
Renaissance melancholy : A Renaissance conception of melancholy as a temperament linked to intellect, creativity, and Saturn. The title connects the figure’s brooding posture with a period theory of creative temperament.
Magic square : A square arrangement of numbers whose rows, columns, and main diagonals share the same sum. The 4-by-4 square includes the date 1514 and organizes number play within the scene.
Erasmus : A Dutch Renaissance humanist and theologian known for classical scholarship and satire. Erasmus’s writings offer a contemporary humanist context for questions of learning and limitation.
Dürer's Saint Jerome in His Study : A 1514 engraving by Albrecht Dürer showing Saint Jerome working in a sunlit study. Made in the same year, it offers a contrasting image of focused labor and ordered space.
Melencolia I Magic Square : The numbered 4-by-4 square engraved on the wall in Dürer’s Melencolia I. Its date-bearing arrangement is clear, while the intended significance of its numbers remains debated.
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