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Melancholia I
Melencolia I
Melancholia I
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)
1514
Medium/Technique
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 24.1 × 19.1 cm (9 1/2 × 7 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with a Centennial gift from Landon T. Clay
Accession Number68.188
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsPrints
The moody, melancholic temperament was identified in the Renaissance not so much with depression as with exceptional creativity, and thus intellectuals and artists were closely associated with Melancholia. In Dürer's depiction, the brooding, winged figure is surrounded by instruments relating to science and art, such as the compass, the hourglass, the scales, and the carpenters' tools in the foreground.
Catalogue Raisonné
Bartsch (intaglio) 074; Meder 75 (II b-c/II)
Signed
Signed and dated in plate, lower right: 1514/[Dürer's monogram]
Marks
No watermark; recto, lower right, in old ink, the inventory mark applied by the painter and collector Peter Lely's executor, Roger North: A g o; collector's stamp in black ink, lower right, also applied by North: PL [with dot underneath; Lugt 2092]; collector's stamp in brown ink: Tomás Harris [Lugt 4921); MFA stamp (Lugt 282), in brown ink, applied twice, one with the accession number in graphite: 68.188; in graphite: B. 74 II; c. 27611; DSHP 735
InscriptionsInscribed in plate, upper left, on the underside of the bat's wings: MELENCOLIA I
ProvenancePeter Lely (b. 1618 - d. 1680; Lugt 2092), London. Tomás Harris (b. 1908 - d. 1964; Lugt 4921), London. 1968, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. (dearlers), London; 1968, sold by Colnaghi to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 12, 1968)