Melencolia I — About This Work
Albrecht Dürer, 1514
About the Work
A winged figure sits amid tools and objects that seem ready for work yet remain unused. An hourglass, ladder, dog and numbered square are among the elements that crowd the scene. The engraving rewards close looking without offering a single simple explanation.
The Cleveland Museum of Art interprets the figure as an embodiment of melancholy and the composition as a meditation on creative thought and its limits. It notes Dürer's handling of varied light effects and the numbered square, whose rows and columns sum to 34. These are the museum's interpretative readings rather than independently established meanings of every symbol.
Fine engraved lines distinguish the figure's drapery from the harder surfaces of the tools and geometric stone. The crowded foreground gives way to a distant expanse of water and sky. Moving between those spaces creates a rhythm of close inspection and outward looking, even as the seated figure remains absorbed and still.
The Work
Artist: Albrecht Dürer
Title: Melencolia I
Date: 1514
Medium: Engraving
Recorded dimensions: 19.4 × 24.5 cm (W × H)
Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession number: 1926.211
Print & Presentation
Palatine presentation: 30 × 30 cm Classic Frame, portrait.
The complete artwork is reproduced at its recorded scale, subject only to negligible whole-pixel rounding, without enlargement, reduction, cropping or distortion. The surrounding white presentation area accommodates the artwork within the framed presentation and is incorporated into the print rather than added as a separate mount.
Frame finishes: Black, White or Natural.
Paper & glazing: Enhanced Matte + Perspex; or Enhanced Matte + Moth-Eye.
Why Original Scale?
Most art-print shops offer the same image in a choice of Small, Medium and Large sizes. We take a different approach. For each edition, we begin with the recorded dimensions of the original work and reproduce the complete image at that scale, preserving its proportions and avoiding enlargement, reduction, cropping or distortion.
Source: Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0. Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., in memory of Ralph King. 1926.211.
Care: Display in a dry interior away from prolonged direct sunlight and sources of moisture.
Notes from Palatine
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