Philip Ball unveils the scientific iconography in Albrecht Dürer's enigmatic engraving Melencolia I.
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Ball, P. Culture: Artistic alchemy. Nature 512, 26–27 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/512026a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/512026a
Andrew Helck
I have always been fascinated with this image — I first came across it on an the cover of an introductory text on number theory. A slight quibble with Mr. Ball: the craftsman's tools should not seem out of place — Durer was a craftsman and an artist. Is the polygonal block of stone awaiting the sculptors hammer and chisel? No, I think we are viewing the finished piece.
Norman Morgan
Melencolia I is by far the most complex of the three master engravings. The winged genius, representing the figure of Melancholy, rests her head on her hand, in a reflective pose, and holds a compass. Around her are geometric shapes, including a sphere and a giant polyhedron, along with scattered woodworking tools. The tools are drawn from the field of measuring and building, in other words, architecture. The rhomboid and sphere represent geometry, the science of measurement and numbers upon which all arts are based.