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Rainer Schoch How Albrecht Dürer Defined the Modern Artist Type With

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Rainer Schoch How Albrecht Dürer Defined the Modern Artist Type With Rainer Schoch How Albrecht Dürer defined the modern artist type with his symbolic image Dürer reflects upon “melancholy” in this masterpiece engraving. This work has the knowledge of dimensions, size, scale and numbers. The always been regarded as one of his most enigmatic and personal pieces. The sheer tools can be categorized into two different spheres: intel- amount of literature built upon this artwork has generated a Babylonian tower of lectualism and craftsmanship. Thus, what at first appeared interpretation on this “Image of Images” (Peter-Klaus as a chaotic jumble of objects, can be interpreted as an Schuster). Erwin Panofsky understood the piece as a, ascending hierarchy in which the intellectual, “artes libe- “spiritual self-portrait of Albrecht Dürer”. rales,” prevails over craft, “artes mechanicae”. Certainly, T he work depicts a winged, matronlike figure, Dürer is addressing one of the core disputes of his time, as sumptuously dressed and crowned with flowers. well as his very own artistic existence. She sits upon the stairs before a wall, pensively According to historians such as Erwin Panofsky, Fritz crouching amid a chaotic jumble of objects and Saxl, and Raymond Klibansky the conceptual and semantic devices that appear to have been abandoned by history of the word melancholy demonstrated a significant chance. Lost in her thoughts, she melancholically change in Dürer’s epoch. Scholars in medieval times belie- rests her head in her hands. She carelessly holds a ved that a surplus of black bile within the body could result Albrecht Dürer: Self-portrait with fur-trimmed compass in her right hand and a book in her lap. A in melancholia, an illness caused by committing one of the robe. 1500. Oil/canvas. Munich, Alte Pinakothek pitifully haggard dog rests, curled up at her feet, deadly sins, the sloth sin. Sloth was believed to provoke melancholic inactivity and emphasizing the sense of agonizing idleness. Not sluggishness of the heart. Today one might call this depression. Marsilio Ficino even the cherub sitting upon the millstone, scribb- (1433-1499), the Humanistic Neoplatonic philosopher, developed a more positive ling eagerly upon his tablet, can conceal the lethar- definition of melancholy. For Ficino, the melancholiac’s indecisiveness and inacti- gic ambience of the scene. The title, MELENCOLIA I, vity was not a symptom of a pathological complex, but rather the result of an intel- can be found upon the stretched-out wings of a bat lectual person experiencing mental strain due to career-related suffering. Conse- flying in the night sky, which is hovered by two fore- quently, it is to be assumed that every artist is inevitably exposed to melancholy boding symbols, a comet and a rainbow. The night’s and the influence of planet Saturn, as their process of creation is found somewhat pale, frosty twilight makes the tools and devices ambiguous in between craftsmanship and intellectual creative knowledge. appear foreign to one another. Deprived of their According to letters exchanged by Willibald Pirckheimer, there was a mee- functional value, they become questionable and ting in early April 1520 between Johannes Cochläus, the former rector of the problematic, creating one large pictorial puzzle. Nuremberg Latin School, and Philipp Fürstenberger, the mayor of Frankfurt. In sgs sgUpon closer examination of the myriad of this meeting Cochläus presented Fürstenberger two works by Dürer, Melancholie objects, the pieces of the puzzle slowly start to come and Hieronymus im Gehäus. Even if we do not know the exact details of what the- together. Among them tools such as pliers, nails, a se two educated gentlemen discussed, we can assume that the mystery of melan- saw, a ruler, planks, wooden profiles, hammer, lad- choly was brought into question, and there was likely no solution found. The idea der are found. These tools are typically associated that such a discussion on art took place and that Melancholie served as a concept with carpenters, stonemasons, and construction image, or “Denkbild” as art historian Peter-Klaus Schuster would say, seems qui- workers. The mill wheel, the turning ball and the pro- te modern to us today. Lot 48 minent, asymmetrical polyhedron are workpieces The work in question is an excellent reprint and its state of preservation is that might be created by such workers. Other described by Meder as M 75, 2 a. It has no watermark, as is the case for most objects pictured include a compass, a scale, a sundial, an hourglass, and a magic engraving papers, and is characterized by its smooth silvery tone. The number 9 square with numbers adding up to 34 in each direction. These tools are associated within the magic square has been adjusted and unlike later printings there is no with the lavish, allegorical figure. They function as measuring devices, symbolizing scratch upon the sphere. A slightly visible cross has been formed by smoothed folds on the unusually smooth reverse side but is not visible at all from the front. The sheet, which was formerly double-folded, was later perhaps subjected to heavy pressing. Grisebach — Summer 2020 48 Albrecht Dürer 1471 – Nuremberg – 1528 “Melencolia I”. 1514 Copper engraving on paper. 24,2 × 18,9 cm (9 ½ × 7 ½ in.). Catalogue raisonné: Schoch/Mende/ Scherbaum 71 / Meder 75, 2 a. One of the rare prints made during Dürer's lifetime. [3562] Provenance Private Collection, Germany (acquired in 1936 at Holl- stein & Puppel, Berlin) EUR 80.000–120.000 USD 86,000–129,000 We would like to thank Rainer Schoch, formerly of the Graphic Collection at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, for kindly providing valuable information. • Symbolic quantum leap into modernity • One of the rare prints made during Dürer's lifetime • In a German private collection for over 80 years Certainly, Dürer is addressing his very own artistic existence with this copper engraving. Grisebach — Summer 2020.
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