Picture-allegory

[Laura]

"Melancholy" Dürer

Art historian C. G. Nesselshtraus in the capital work (Nesselshtraus, 1961: 144-153) presents a brief within ancient and medieval doctrine of the four temperaments, carefully highlighting the melancholic temperament and thinking about it, the different views on the melancholy, the new representation of the melancholic in the Renaissance, reflected so strongly in the engraving of the great German Renaissance artist Albrecht Durer's "Melancholia" (1514).

In ancient and medieval times it was customary to assume that the melancholy induced by the Earth under the sign of Saturn, the dry, cold, embodies the evening, autumn and old age, while sanguine generated by the air under the sign of Jupiter or Venus, carries humidity, warm air embodies the morning, spring breeze, youth, choleric, generated by the fire under the sign of Mars, is a dry and hot, embodying the afternoon, summer, maturity, and the phlegmatic, generated by the water, so depending on the "cold and associated with the sea of ​​the moon" wet, cold, a relative of the night, winter, old age.

Medieval Medicine and the worst danger was of a melancholy temperament (Villanova, 1970: 35-36). "People in this category - writes C. G. Nesselshtraus - characterized by the addition of awkward, skinny, dark skin, dark hair and eyes, they are gloomy, sad, inert, lazy, they are characterized by greed, greed, deceit, they are vicious and cowardly , shunned society and seek solitude. " These "unpleasant and unfortunate people," born under the sign of the unhappiest of all the planets, more than any other subject of mental illness. "The only thing to some extent, they can serve as a consolation, and sometimes redeems or mitigates their weaknesses - which is manifested in some of their penchant for science and thinking that they indulge in their solitude."

[SPOILER] Melancholic temperament in Gothic art "is usually associated with laziness - one of the qualities attributed to this category. Sleeping next to plow a farmer, asleep beside the crucifix burgers, dozed off at the spinning woman, and sometimes a whole family sleeping or lounging idlers - in these and similar images is presented in a series of engravings Melancholia dodyurerovskoy pores "[1].

Durer, as the Nesselshtraus, in his celebrated work on "Melancholy" has relied on the prevailing during the second half of XV century Italian humanists in the environment a new interpretation of the melancholic temperament that comes from Aristotle's position that special melancholic anxiety, being abnormal, causes mental illness as well as normal or only slightly painful, "stimulates the mind and the acuteness of the senses."

"Affected then depression, excessive exuberance, melancholic as it always teetering between two precipices, but their path lies above the level of mediocrity, his talent melancholic surpass all other mortals. According to Aristotle, "all great men, distinguished in philosophy, in public affairs, in poetry or art - melancholic, some even to the extent that they suffer from ill health caused by black bile." Based on similar views, Plato developed his theory of "divine madness" which he considered the highest accessible only to selected, a form of enlightenment. "

Nesselshtraus notes further that "the views of Aristotle and Plato were known for the medieval Scholastics," but in those days, "when faith took precedence over reason and the human talent did not attach much importance, they could not affect the assessment of adverse melancholic temperament. Only in the Renaissance interest in the development of personality, intelligence and talents of man has created a way for the resurrection of the theory of Aristotle and Plato. Now, a melancholy temperament, the past was only fear and contempt, was surrounded by a halo of genius. What was once considered a misfortune, although it was dangerous, but an enviable gift. Without denying the shortcomings of the melancholic temperament, the Italian humanists, however argued that it was his owners have created a higher value generated by the human mind. " Now, many began to imitate melancholic. It was found that "the Greek philosopher Plotinus also had a high opinion of the god Saturn, as Aristotle melancholic temperament. According to Plotinus, Saturn, being older than all the gods, is closer to the original source of life than those born from him, Jupiter and other gods. This ancient god of embodies the highest intellect, because he created everything that seized and that only understand others. Naturally, the planet Saturn was a welcome patron saint for those who sought to penetrate the secrets of the universe. Many in those days were given to the protection of the planet while trying to protect themselves from its harmful effects by wearing special amulets. "

Let us feel and think over how to analyze T. G. Nesselshtraus "Melancholy" by Durer, which lie in the conception of the new, humanist view:

"... We face the sea shore, water, and unlimited distance twilight sky, cut by a rainbow and the sinister rays of a comet. In the foreground, surrounded by scattered in disarray carpentry and construction tools, sitting, resting his hand the head, lost in deep thought winged woman. In her hand she unfurled a compass attached to his belt a bunch of keys and purse. Nearby on the ground lies a wooden bowl, a large stone is seen on a polyhedron, which is due to the melting pot looks. Behind the woman climbed to the grindstone sullen boy with difficulty takes something on the board. Near curled into a ball skinny dog. On the right rises in the depths of a stone building, perhaps unfinished, because to him leaning against a wooden staircase. On the walls of the building hanging hourglass, scales, and a bell and traced a magic square. In the sky, in the light of comets spread out the wings of a huge bat. On the wings of the mouse inscription: "Melancholia I» (...) Immediately sensing that the winged woman oppressed by doubt and frustration, the audience, however, becomes a dead end in front of many scattered hints here. Why melancholy depicted winged, which means its inaction, which depicts a little boy behind, what is the value of the magic square, which are scattered around the instruments, what is the meaning of the numbers «I»? »

From the old prints of various artists depicting Melancholy mocking hostility, Durer, "retains a traditional gesture commonly accompanies gloomy meditation - holding up the head arm. He also retains and idleness as a feature inherent melancholy, but the idleness of a winged woman in Durer's engraving is not caused by laziness. Do not sleep, but doubts have paralyzed its activities. Instead of lazy or sloppy housewives in the engraving by Durer in front of us a supreme being, which has a rich intellect, surrounded by the tools of creative work, but fallen into a painful thought. " Magic square (a square with numbers whose sum of all horizontal and vertical rows of the same) to amplify, was believed to impact on the person on the planet Jupiter is likely to have a talisman, guarding against the evil influence of Saturn. Saturn is considered the patron of agriculture and "geometry - the science that has grown, as is evident from its name, from surveying. Therefore, Dürer thought it possible to provide the attributes of Melancholy, which is usually endowed while the personification of geometry. In essence, he submitted his melancholy as a Geometry. "

Melancholy - "the image of owning all the achievements of human thought and science genius who dared to penetrate the secrets of the universe, but stopped suddenly in front of an obstacle." Shown in this engraving by Durer "unquenchable thirst for knowledge was in harmony with his epoch, when the great, transformed the world of discoveries and inventions have generated a strong belief in the boundless possibilities of the human mind (...) For an external passive winged woman guessed bold the flight of human thought, ready to join the audacious rivalry with God. "

Dürer's Melancholia is close to his own spiritual world thirst for knowledge, doubt, frustration, disappointment, and a strong desire "to the extent possible approach to truth and beauty." "In" Melancholy, "he (Dyurer. - MB) embodies only those familiar doubts himself, who always stand in the way of creative genius. Each success opens up new horizons and at the same time make it again and again to make sure in the immensity unknown. But if this rise in dissatisfaction with it, it also pushes him to new daring. "

Dürer himself suggests that "tied to his belt Melancholy keys are a symbol of power and the purse - wealth (this is the usual attribute of melancholic, meaning well and stinginess). The bat is associated with melancholy because her element - the evening twilight, and accompanied her to the loneliness and despair, the dog is because of all the animals it is endowed with the highest intelligence and at the same time more than any other subject of rabies, saw what the relationship with a penchant melancholic to mental illness. Sitting on the millstone something hard drawing a boy, perhaps, represents the practical activity, devoid of knowledge and thought. "

But the most mysterious of all the allusions contained in this engraving is a figure of «I», inscribed on the wings of a bat next to the word "melancholy". Now assume that the key to its interpretation of his work to be found in the famous German scientist and magician Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim 'On the occult philosophy. " This book develops the idea of ​​the existence of three levels of human genius. The first of these are people with imagination and living in a world of spatial representations - the artists and artisans, on the second stage are those who have dominated his mind, - the scientists and statesmen, and finally, the highest, the third level are those who prevail intuition, which allows them to rise to the apprehension of divine truth, from among them go theologians and prophets. Since, according to this classification, "Melancholy" Dürer to its geometry attributes should be assigned to the first stage of crafts and arts - it is possible that the figure «I» is the designation of this level.

It seems that the magic of engraving (this spiritual self-portrait of a great artist) lies in her psychotherapy, psychoprophylactic effects directed to the melancholic: the greatness of wistful melancholy reveals a doubt, the spiritual force of uncommon intellectual melancholic physical weakness, impracticality in a broad sense.

All this is well-known detail is important to know the person with defenzivnostyu, in order to mitigate, to dispel the painful experience of his inferiority, or at least feel great uncertainty about the thoughts of his unworthiness. Showing slides of prints, illustrations, in albums, I talked about this melancholy, anxiety, depression, self-conscious patients in the dark, cozy atmosphere "psychological room", and here, among the healing candles and beautiful cups of tea, they talked excitedly about these important for the state of moments, and I explained that their emotional difficulties are not called in the old way are now called: if all these experiences, disorder called the "melancholy," and these people - "melancholic."