Dürer's nostalgia in Melencolia I
- David Moreno
- 5 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
On November 7, 1492, a flash of light pierced the Swiss sky: the first classified meteorite in the Western world crashed over Ensisheim, a small Alsatian town located 20 kilometers from Basel. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) , then a young painter and engraver apprenticed in the Swiss town, witnessed the fall of the stone, impressed like all the witnesses to the event (1). Interpreted as a celestial sign, a divine manifestation, the Ensisheim meteorite was greeted with optimism by the local population and the artist himself. It heralded better times, which was soon proven true (2). Yet, twenty-two years later, the master of the German Renaissance would evoke this episode by creating an exceptional engraving: Melencolia I , steeped in a somber and mysterious atmosphere. Why this change of heart?
Considered an extraordinary creation in 1514, Dürer's engraving is still debated today for its symbolic and aesthetic richness. Curiously, for a very long time, the celestial body marked at the vanishing point was linked to a dark satellite (and not a meteorite), called "Melencolia I," which cast a fatal light upon the lives of humans, animals, and plants. This interpretation, favored by the Romantics, finds particular resonance in the poetry of Gérard de Nerval, notably in El Desdichado , the unfortunate soul trapped in the web of the " Black Sun of Melancholy " (3). This vision was taken up by director Lars von Trier in 2011, in his twilight film Melancholia.
In fact, this frankly dark perception has fueled official interpretations of the strange engraving from the outset. To a lesser extent, the great Dürer specialist, Erwin Panofsky, suggested in 1943 that Melencolia I should be considered " a spiritual self-portrait of Dürer " (4), in which the engraver would have sublimated his penchant for melancholy – a mental state that invites imaginary wandering, reverie… conducive to both artistic creations and scientific discoveries, but which in its severe forms paralyzes the mind in delirium and madness.
It was only in the 1970s, with the work of the German art historian Fedja Anzelewky and philologist Dieter Wuttke, that the hypothesis of a representation of the Ensisheim meteorite was put forward and subsequently validated (5). On closer inspection, the only luminous substance in the engraving comes from the meteorite behind the rainbow, which, far from being a source of darkness, illuminates the scene with a soft and peaceful glow, like the calm water of the lake in the background (6). The landscape and setting in the foreground would be almost comforting, were it not for the disturbance introduced by the bat (or gargoyle), with the inscription "Melencolia I" on the inner surface of its wings—undoubtedly the main disruptive element of the work.
Melencolia I , symbolic engraving
On the copper plate, besides the main figure of the silkenly draped angel, there is a collection of symbols from the hermetic tradition: a ladder, an hourglass, a sundial, a compass, a ruler, a balance…. And two extraordinary mathematical objects: a magic square of order 4 with particular constraints and an unprecedented geometric solid, inscribed in an astonishing perspective.
Magic squares were introduced to the West through texts dealing with Islamic esotericism. Initially considered mysterious figures with magical properties, they were studied by the Arabs as mathematical constructions from the 10th century onwards (7). A so-called normal magic square is a square of dimension n by n , consisting of all the numbers from 1 to n squared , arranged so that the sum of each row has the same value. Thus, Dürer's square (on the right of the house wall) contains the natural numbers from 1 to 16, with each of its rows adding up to 34. But it is even more remarkable, since the sum of the corners (16+13+4+1) and that of the central square (10+11+7+6) also equals 34. And, less out of egotism than to ultimately mark this unique square, Dürer mentions on the last row (4, 15, 14, 1) the year of creation of Melencolia I , framed by the elements of his coded signature: 4 points to the 4th letter of the alphabet, that is, D, while 15 and 14 represent the date 1514 and 1 the letter A.
A passionate student of mathematics and geometry, Albrecht Dürer, like the painters and scholars of the Italian Renaissance, believed that nature was governed by laws relating numbers to one another and to forms. The magic square illustrates the importance for the artist of using mathematical tools, much like the Great Designer and Builder of the Universe… In the same vein, Dürer was determined to become an expert in linear perspective, one of the most prolific techniques in the history of painting for representing depth on a flat surface. The presence of an impossible polyhedron—that is, one never before seen and difficult to identify even for a 21st-century observer—attests to the mathematical and geometric virtuosity of the Nuremberg creator.
Without going into the details of its composition, Dürer's polyhedron is obtained by elongating a cube along a long diagonal, and then truncating it at its apex and base in parallel. For a long time, the unsettling solid of Melencolia I was perceived as the symbol of its creator's tormented aspiration to an unattainable perfection. The hypothesis of the representation of the Ensisheim meteorite in the engraving may qualify this interpretation: rather than an inability to grasp the secrets of nature, it raises the question of Dürer's inability to recreate the beauty of a memory, that of a privileged period.
Melencolia I , nostalgic engraving
Very often deciphered by its myriad symbolic elements and in a static interpretation, Melencolia I has apparently never been apprehended as a story to unearth, a nostalgia to reveal.
Numerous measuring instruments are depicted in the engraving. One device, suspended on the wall of the house and whose center is at the same level as the luminescent meteorite, particularly catches the viewer's eye: the hourglass, seemingly in operation. Indeed, Dürer represents time as it flows—based on precise volume calculations, the amount of time that has passed is equal to the amount that is yet to come. Another important detail: the instrument casts a clear, well-defined shadow. This contrasts with the sundial, positioned just above the hourglass, where no shadow is shown. What matters is not the instant itself, but a past memory and the temporal distance that separates us from it. To further encourage the viewer to focus on the hourglass and the past it represents, we should note the ratio between the width of the magic square and that of the clock, which is identical to the golden ratio (8). We can see in this an indication of a moment forever past and happy in the life of the painter-engraver, a kind of golden age for Dürer: the year when the Americas were discovered, during his apprenticeship in Basel, at the dawn of his adult life, the sky for a moment torn apart by a 127-kilogram meteorite (9).
If the luminous orb (at the bottom of the engraving) symbolizes the emergence of the first meteorite recorded in Europe, the polyhedron is its pure and perfect, that is to say, idealized, representation two decades later. However, between these two episodes, one enthusiastic and the other less so, a melancholic nostalgia, like a mischievous devil sprung from its box (the bat), came to spoil the party and taunt the artist. Melencolia I and its abundance of symbolism can be appreciated as a "therapeutic" attempt to reconnect with the vitality of 1492, a year brimming with hope for the apprentice. Let us explore this avenue…
Despite his youth, Dürer made a strong impression in Basel with his woodcut depicting Saint Jerome. His perfect mastery of the burin opened doors to the city's major publishers. Introducing " a new style in illustration ," while completing his apprenticeship, he was deeply convinced that a destiny awaited him (10). On top of the success that was already dawning, a miracle occurred at just the right moment: a meteorite crashed a few leagues from the city where he was staying. A devoutly religious man, there is no doubt that Dürer was deeply affected by the meteorite's appearance and interpreted it as a divine sign of good fortune. For Dürer, a period of prodigious production began that would last more than ten years: " In addition to numerous paintings, he produced, between 1495 and 1500 alone, more than sixty engravings on copper and wood, printed on his own presses, which earned him an international reputation " (11).
A fact rarely mentioned when discussing the German artist is the failure of his marriage to Agnes Frey. The union, arranged by their families, was celebrated on July 7, 1494. A year earlier, a self-portrait by Albrecht Dürer, referencing the upcoming marriage, shows the painter and engraver holding a thistle, a symbol of good fortune in love and marital success (12). The anticipated happiness was not to be… Agnes's personality has long divided historians. Some believe she was gentle and devoted at first, but became cantankerous over time. Others consider her a true shrew and miser, unable to bear Albrecht spending " hours composing treatises on the theory of human body proportions or on descriptive geometry, instead of engaging in lucrative work " (13). One thing is certain: they were unhappy together and childless… The decline of their romantic feelings, compared to what he could have hoped for as a young adult, must have contributed, more than is usually acknowledged, to Dürer's melancholy. At the very least, to the gradual loss of the exaltation the artist displayed in Basel two years before his marriage.
The causes of nostalgia in Dürer's work are manifold. They lie, on the one hand, in the difficulties encountered by humankind, and on the other, in a fading faith in Renaissance humanism that, with the arrival of maturity, is a source of hope. From a historical perspective, the meteorite had sparked hopes for economic improvement in the region and for success for Emperor Maximilian I in his struggle against the French. " Indeed, Maximilian defeated the armies of the King of France at the Battle of Dournon on January 17, 1493 " (14). However, some 22 years later, the peasant revolts that engulfed the countryside and the beginnings of the Wars of Religion would cast a shadow over the era. From a personal perspective, aside from the collapse of his marriage, Dürer had to contend with malaria for decades, the death of his mother in 1514 (the year of the masterpiece), and that of his godfather, Anton Koberger, a Nuremberg printer and publisher, a year earlier (15). Finally, and most importantly, as Melencolia I demonstrates, the alliance between the arts and mathematical laws seems not to fulfill all the promises the Renaissance saw in it. The mysteries of nature, the intricacies of the soul, the power of happy but bygone moments, cannot in any way be conveyed by the combined use of engraving and geometry. The arts and sciences fall short of life, mere substitutes… but what marvelous substitutes they are!
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Notes et références :
(1) Dürer et la météorite d’Ensisheim
(2) Météorites et prodiges
(3) Gérard de Nerval cite explicitement l’œuvre de Dürer dans Aurélia ou le Rêve et la Vie, en comparant « un être d’une grandeur démesurée », qui apparaît dans un rêve, à « l’Ange de la Mélancolie, d’Albrecht Dürer »
(4) La Vie et l’Art d’Albrecht Dürer (The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer, Princeton, 1943) d’Erwin Panofsky, traduit par Dominique Le Bourg, Hazan 2012, P.264
(5) Plus personne aujourd’hui ne semble contester cette interprétation
(6) Selon l’historien de l’art Dominique Radrizzani, la fortification en arrière-plan de Melencolia I évoque le château de Chillon sur le lac Léman (Lemancolia : Traité artistique du Léman, NOIR SUR BLANC, 2013). Cette trouvaille pertinente appuie la thèse de la représentation de la météorite d'Ensisheim qui passa au-dessus de la Suisse.
(7) Pour ceux intéressés par les carrés magiques mathématiques
(8) Souvent noté Phi, le nombre d’or, appelé aussi nombre de la divine proportion, est approximé à la première décimale à la valeur : 1,6. Le nombre d’or est présent à plusieurs endroits dans le chef d’œuvre de Dürer
(10) La Vie et l’Art d’Albrecht Dürer (The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer, Princeton, 1943) d’Erwin Panofsky, traduit par Dominique Le Bourg, Hazan 2012, P.13
(11) Ibidem P.16
(12) Portrait de l’artiste tenant un chardon, 1493. Exposé au Musée du Louvre
(13) Ibidem P.14
Nostalgia , from the album What does anything mean? Basically –
The Chamelons , 1985 (remastered by Blue Apple Music in 2009)
