Durer > Melencolia

Albrecht Durer Melencolia 1514

This print, along with St Jerome In His Study, and Knight Death And The Devil is considered one of the 3 Meisterstiche, or Master Works of Albrecht Durer. This particular image was originally engraved on copper. It really does show an unsurpassed excellence in Durers artistic power. There are a lot of interpretations around what Durer “meant”. I will only say you and I can do well to look at his work as a whole, and the Master Works in particular, and draw what conclusions we can. The one obvious clue we have is the word meloncolia or meloncholy which has its roots in a gloomy, pensive demeanor often associated with creativity. Who knows? Maybe Durer expressed a kind of frustration with the gloom of an artistic block – and then in expressing it made one of his greatest engravings.