
Public Domain
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Public Domain
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.


Albrecht Dürer
German, 1471-1528
Melencolia I, 1514
engraving
sheet; image area: 9 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches (23.49 x 18.41 cm); mat: 19 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches (48.89 x 36.19 cm)
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Gift of Willis O. Chapin, 1891
1891:4.74
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Information may change due to ongoing research.Glossary of Terms
On his extended travels to Venice and Bologna, Albrecht Dϋrer studied humanist philosophy and the art of the Italian Renaissance, and he incorporated what he learned into his graphic production. In Melencolia I, an angel personifing “genius” is seated among symbols of creative activity in architecture, astronomy, carpentry, geometry, mathematics, and metallurgy. The angel appears to have fallen into a mournful gloom from which her vaunted imagination cannot raise her. Here, Dürer suggests that the spark of creativity can be stymied by melancholy, like a lead weight on the wings of inspiration.
While only a limited number of copies of this print exist due to the limitations of the copperplate printing process, the Albright-Knox holds two impressions in its collection. Both works were gifts: this one by Willis O. Chapin in 1891 and another by Frederic P. Norton in 1999.
Label from Albrecht Dϋrer: Highlights from the Collection, May 2, 2014–July 6, 2014
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Lectures and Talks
Lecture with Judy Walsh–Celebrate the Quincentennial of Albrecht Dürer's Melencolia I
Fri, May 2, 2014 ● 6 pmLearn MoreLearn More
Other Works by This Artist
- The Virgin and Child with a Monkey ,
Peasant and Wife
,- The Prodigal son ,
Christ on the Mount of Olives
,Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand
,The Babylonian Whore
,- St. Eustace ,
The Crucifixion (from the Little Passion)
,Detail from the Triumphal Arch of Maximilian
,- St. Jerome in Penitence ,
- Melencolia I ,
No image available,
but we're working on itMartyrdom of Ten Thousand
,
Collection Highlights All Collection Highlights
- Le Panthéon et Saint-Étienne-du-Mont (The Pantheon and Saint-Étienne-du-Mont) ,
- Green Horses ,
- Chatham XI: Blue Yellow ,
- Peaceable Kingdom ,
- Venetian Bead Stringers ,
- Maisons à l'Île d'Ouessant, Bretagne (Houses on the Island of Ouessant, Brittany) ,
- Rue de village à Marlotte (Village Street in Marlotte) ,
- La voix des airs (The Voice of Space) ,
- Die Knieende (Kneeling Woman) ,