Art History of Duhrer, Essay Example

Albrect Durer made art which looked at the magic of dark themes in religion. One of his most famous pieces of art, Melencolia I, is an engraving with many details which are not understood. The angel looks a little angry, a square in the back shows mixed numbers, odd shapes lie on the ground. In this paper we look at two papers by Philip Sohm and David Pingree, two men who also wondered about the meaning of the engraving and who come to very different answers.

Philip Sohm looks at Melencolia I with the odd Italian style of presenting something whole and complex from a distant view and of revealing rough texture and differences up close. As an attempted copy of nature, these paintings are more like a dream than a set image. The subjects of paintings were more important than the materials used to capture them in art, so painters during that time would spend much time setting the scene and draping fabrics or placing other items. David Pingree writes that many parts of the engraving, like the small area of land with buildings, are small and not even seen by most people. Sohm adds that the angel sits on an unfinished building covered in little symbols. These buildings show that there is life and separation in Melencolia I- even if it is not easy to see. Sohm also made and explained many new words for painting techniques and styles. The most visible brush strokes were often used to draw attention to light. In the same way, Sohm writes that this style of creating a whole picture from a distance fits the layout of Melencolia I.

Pingree argues that the engraving is separated into different areas—that the ladder and tower belong to Heaven, the regular world is in the left center, and a level in between is in the right center and bottom. Pingree believes that the art has to do with heaven and Earth and with putting fire and air above earth and water. Sohm adds that Agrippa told the world that melancholy is a frenzy which pulls demons toward us and Pingree writes with mythology and with Christianity. The angel of melancholy does hold a compass, which is shown in French art as being held by God as he measures the great circle of the earth. (Sohm 17)

The heavenly part has something flying through the sky. Others said that it was a comet, but, looking at where it is, Pingree writes that it is a planet or star but not the sun. The sun has its own lines showing that it is not part of this planet or star and shines in a way which does not cut off the rainbow near. In Durer’s early art, rays of light pointed back to heavenly people, and he hardly used them in 1510- when he created Melencolia I (256-258). Sohm and Pingree write that it is Saturn, which is closely tied to Roman mythology but was still used in the study of the stars and used to compare religions. As a small circle with little to see, this gives more questions than answers, a problem that “one of the most malleable symbols…is the bane of iconographers” (Sohn 21).

Close to the possible Saturn, the rainbow is believed to be a show of promise, but Pingree argues that rainbows are also light and are used to show the separation of heaven and earth. (22) The Bible promise of the rainbow is brought back and broken in the last days, so the rainbow may be a symbol of God finishing with that promise before the world ends. This seems to answer about the scales, compass, and other tools for balancing and measuring which are on the ground at the angel’s feet (Sohm 22). Rainbows are made by seeing light, so the use of light and dark again brings attention to the back left of the engraving. It was common during that time in art for rays of light to shine brighter in three directions with equal angles. Durer does not limit the number of rays like the others, but he does make them brighter in two directions (Pingree 258). The light is most bright moving toward the toward the rainbow in the top left, and it looks as though the light is a direction in which the eye of the blank circle almost seems to look.

If it is Saturn, then Sohm writes that Durer shows geometry and art and artist’s block in the engraving. Agrippa wrote that this melancholy makes men “so outstanding by their genius that they seemed gods rather than men” (Sohm16). Saturn is dry and cold like earth, so Pingree writes that the planet rests above the odd shape and above the ground for that reason (258). If it is Saturn in the engraving, then both authors agree that it warns people not to always take more than they need or should have and that the sky of the engraving tells about finding a direction. Finding a way with so many different symbols could be done with the compass Melancholy holds, but only Durer knows where the compass points because it is covered by parts of her dress. It matches the size of some of the regular shapes, like the sphere and odd-pointed block, which lay near on the ground. This shape was said by Plato to be a perfect form. These types of measures were used during Durers’ time to show wisdom and balance. Durer made Melencolia I in 1510 and this measure began about 1240 AD (Sohm 17).

Philip Sohm and David Pingree looked at Melencolia I in two different ways. Sohm looked at the way that the style of art showed Durers’ meaning about being inspired. Pingree looked at each part of the engraving as a small clue for a puzzle which says that heaven, earth, and the area between are divided. But both Sohm and Pingree bring attention to new ways of thinking about the engraving. Melencolia I could be art about the world and heaven. It could be art about the artists’ work. It could also be something in between: art which separates the mind from nature and heaven from earth. The only thing that we know for sure is that Durers’ engraving Melencolia I is arranged to show a sense of long distances and separation and that this makes the resting angel melancholy, but both the lessons of Sohm and Pingree show that one work of art can have two or more great themes to live by.

In the study of history, Keith Moxey finds many themes in art but writes that the historical distance of today’s studies means that many of these guesses are probably wrong. (750) He warns that studying art can be tricky and make people today feel that a work is teaching a different lesson that the artist had in mind. As countries fight, this happens more, because they think differently about the country and the people which a work comes from. Moxey explains that with all of the changes in Germany during the world wars, other countries took a mean look at the art of the past, looking for clues and guessing about some sign that was not even there. Even though there was war going on, Germany’s people did not hate everyone and they looked at ideas of God and the Spirit in the ways that they had before. Durer always wondered about the differences between what he was taught and what he came to believe, and other countries’ people looked in his works for clues about how he felt about the way a country should run. They tried to find other themes that were probably not there.

At the end, only the artist really knows what he meant by each part of his work. Durers’ Melencolia I confuses many people with different signs and has been looked at for themes of Christianity, art, and history. The historical distance (which Moxey writes can confuse the people who look at this art) can also take them to the wrong conclusions. This is the problem even with art today when the artist does not just tell the people what a work means, but guessing is important to understanding how great art inspires people to think or change or guess.

Works Cited

Moxey, Keith. “Impossible Distance: Past And Present In The Study Of Dürer And Grünewald.” Art Bulletin 86.4 (2004): 750-763. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.

Phillip Sohm, “Dürer’s Melancolia I: The Limits of Knowledge,” Studies in the History of Art 9 (1979): 13-32.

Pingree, David. “A New Look at Melancolia I,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 43. 1980: pp. 257-258.