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Original file
About This Work
A brooding winged figure rests her head on her hand, surrounded by a chaotic assortment of objects including an hourglass, a balance, a magic square, and a large truncated rhombohedron. A small putto perches on a grindstone nearby, while a lean dog sleeps at the figure’s feet beneath a sky illuminated by a comet and a rainbow. The composition captures a moment of intellectual paralysis where the tools of worldly craft and science fail to provide spiritual or creative satisfaction.
This engraving is a foundational visual text of the Northern Renaissance, illustrating the Neoplatonic concept of 'inspired melancholy' championed by Marsilio Ficino and Cornelius Agrippa. It depicts the artist-philosopher's struggle with the saturnine temperament, where the mastery of terrestrial geometry and natural philosophy is seen as insufficient for reaching divine truth.
Inscriptions
MELENCOLIA I 16 3 2 13 5 10 11 8 9 6 7 12 4 15 14 1 AD
Translation
MELANCHOLY I 16 3 2 13 5 10 11 8 9 6 7 12 4 15 14 1 AD
Connected Texts
Marsilio Ficino
Ficino’s 'De vita libri tres' redefined melancholy as a temperament associated with genius and the planet Saturn, a central theme of this work.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Agrippa's 'De occulta philosophia' describes 'Melancholia Imaginativa' as the first stage of inspiration, which aligns with the title and imagery of the print.
Collections
Provenance & Source
Object
Engraving
allegory
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · CC0
https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/petit-palais/oeuvres/melencolia-i-copie-bartsch-74#infos-principales
Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedication
4946 × 6263 px
4a70c8ae7eaa95d75af79e2da51cfae182017a47
August 1, 2023
March 24, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.