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by Perelandra » Sat May 16, 2009 2:38 pm
by OP ED » Sun May 17, 2009 5:31 pm
by barracuda » Tue May 19, 2009 12:20 am
by OP ED » Tue May 19, 2009 12:57 am
We now come to the central theme of Durer's "Melencolia." The alchemist's lot was such that he was often depicted as a melancholy and frustrated being, as, for example, by Chaucer, Weiditz, Brueghel, and Teniers. In a wider sense, melancholy was held to be an attribute of students or seekers after knowledge. The doctrine of melancholy, moreover, is inseparable from the Saturnine mysticism that permeates alchemy. This association, which was widely recognized in the early sixteenth century, finds many reflections in Durer's masterpiece. One of the elements of Saturnine mysticism is measurement, typified by the compasses, balance, and hour-glass.
The polyhedron lying beside the foot of the ladder (representing the base metal, lead) may be an image of the Philosopher's Stone, or more immediately, of the so-called "Stone of Saturn", which Saturn (or Kronos), "swallowed and spewed up instead of Jupiter." Saturn, who is often represented in alchemy as an old man with an hour-glass upon his head, was addicted to swallowing his own children; for this reason, infants, usually shown at play, enter into the Saturnine elements of alchemy. [the magic square under the bell is Jupiter's --- OP ED's note]
It is frequently stated in the esoteric writings on alchemy that once the primitive materials of the Stone have been obtained, the rest of the operations of the Great Work are only a labor fit for women or "child's play." This ludus puerorum (child's play) motive often comes to the surface in sixteenth century art, as, for example, in the work of Durer's contemporary, Cranach. The infants may be linked on the one hand with the alchemical idea of regeneration, and on the other with the mythological story of Saturn and thus with the idea of melancholy.
For example, all three of Cranach's representations of Melancholy show infants at play. In the first (1528), four infants are romping with a dog, a sphere and compasses being shown in the background; in the second (1532), two of three infants are trying to lever forward a large sphere, the third has a hoop, and there is a dog in the background; in the third (1533), fifteen infant boys are shown at play, most of whom some are dancing and two are playing on the flute and drum. There are also other examples in alchemy suggesting the use of music as an antidote to melancholy. Furthermore, one of the paintings of Splendor Solis (1582) shows ten infant boys at play, and the accompanying bath provides still another link with the Saturnine mysticism, which was often associated with moisture or wetness. Thus Saturn, in the guise of a crippled or wooden-legged man with a watering-pot, is sometimes shown watering the Sun Tree and Moon Tree of the alchemists. The crippled Saturn symbolizes the slow and melancholy planet, Saturn, and the dull and heavy metal, lead, with which the planet was associated in alchemy. Again, the "labor fit for women" is frequently brought out in alchemical pictures of washerwomen engaged in their humid operations. From this point of view it is interesting that Durer's design has a watery background.
The sphere and hoop associated with Cranach's infants are suggestive also of change and regeneration. They may perhaps be linked with that still older symbol of ancient Egypt, the Ouroboros, the serpent biting its own tail, signifying eternity. Other alchemical conceptions closely bound up with the sphere and hoop, and the grindstone upon which Durer's infant is sitting, are those of the Philosopher's Egg or Vase of Hermes, and the circulation within it of the materials of the Great Work. The bulging purse at the foot of Durer's main figure may also be likened to the purse into which one of three winged infants is dropping coins, in the celebrated alchemical interior of the artist Terriers; in the same painting a large soap-bubble hovering in the air is reminiscent of the sphere in the compositions of Durer and Cranach. The rolling sphere, hoop, or grindstone may also be connected with the famous second precept of the Emerald Tablet: "What is Below is like that which is Above; and what is Above is like that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of One Thing.
Durer's brooding figure, posed in an attitude of dejection and frustration, with a sad, leaden, downward cast, may be interpreted as an embodiment of the alchemical searcher after the ephemeral Stone -- or, in a wider sense, as the seeker after wisdom -- in a mood of temporary defeat. The atmosphere of lassitude and gloom is intensified by the tolling bell, the quiescent infant, and the lean and passive hound. Despite the opening keys and the light-giving lamp, "knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." Yet, "we fail to rise, are baffled to fight better." In the distance, dispelling the black bat, night, shines the sun over the Saturnine Sea and if, like the Saturnine symbols of alchemy, the winged genius of Melencolia broods with darkened face.
by barracuda » Tue May 19, 2009 1:42 am
by OP ED » Tue May 19, 2009 2:40 am
by nathan28 » Wed May 20, 2009 7:00 am
by OP ED » Wed May 20, 2009 2:08 pm
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