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Primary sourcePainting1514

Melencolia I

Albrecht Dürer · 1514

A richly symbolic engraving by Dürer of a brooding winged figure surrounded by tools and symbols, often read as a meditation on creative genius.

Dürer created this engraving, one of his most personal and debated works, possibly containing a veiled self-portrait.

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Engraving 'Melencolia I' by Albrecht Dürer: a winged, pensive woman sits with a compass and book amid geometric solids, a sleeping dog, a sphere, a magic square, hourglass, bell, and a cherub, under a rainbow and banner.
Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I, 1514. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.

About this source

What it is

This is an engraving made by Albrecht Dürer in 1514, now held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. It is one of his three so-called Meisterstiche, or master prints.

Why it matters

The engraving shows a winged figure surrounded by tools of craft, geometry and alchemy, a magic square, an hourglass and other symbols whose exact meaning has never been settled. Scholars, especially Erwin Panofsky, have linked it to humanist ideas about melancholy and creative genius, and some think the brooding figure may be a veiled self-portrait of Dürer himself, made not long after the death of several friends and his mother.

Look closer

  • What objects can you find in the image, and what kinds of knowledge or work might they represent?
  • Why do you think this print has been interpreted in so many different ways over the centuries?
  • What mood does the composition create, and how does Dürer achieve it through pose and expression?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Albrecht Dürer on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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