Melancholia, Albrecht Dürer, 1514
engraving, h 239mm × w 185mm More details
Even after more than five centuries not all of the questions raised by this enigmatic print have been satisfactorily answered. What is certain is that melancholy (the humour associated with black gall), the temperament linked to creative genius as found in artists and scholars, is depicted here. The realisation that everything man creates is imperfect fills Melancholia with a deep, fathomless grief.
