However, Albrecht Dürer’s “Melencolia 1” is not an engraving which expresses only “melancholy” without signs of hope. The sight of the earthbound winged woman – the living focus of the picture – is fully awake. The clear eyes – regarded as the windows of the soul – show strength to persevere and yet be open/alert to that which you cannot reach by your efforts and will – open to grace. This is also shown in the open wings of the strong figure.
Plato grants two wings to the soul with which she can fly to the absolute: One wing is research/education and the other wing represents the desire for the highest good, to which our will is directed.
Between dusk, (melancholy – gloomy brooding) and dawn (hope – enlightenment) (depicted in the rainbow and in the light) our human situation is located. This human conflicted situation is one of the main profound philosophical questions of all times. And on Dürer’s picture we find no indication, if this is denounced as failure, despair or maybe hope?
Coming to the end of my reflection on Dürer’s “Melencolia 1” I realize that there will always remain open questions in regard to this enigmatic artwork. And it is a timeless challenge for everyone who uses its imagery as self-reflection tool to dialogue with one’s own psyche and its arising imagery of the actual state of the world that surrounds us, today.
I would like to point in this context to the Renaissance philosopher Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), with whose writings Dürer was very familiar. Therefore, to approach the Renaissance time and its leading symbol of “melancholy”, you will also have to keep in mind that it was at this time that Mirandola wrote his book: “Oratio De hominis dignitate” (Oratio on the dignity of man). This book is regarded as the most cherished legacy which the Renaissance/Humanism left behind. And it would have not only made a deep impression on the learned men at that time, but also would have influenced Dürer in his artwork.
In advance of Luther’s reformation, where theologists used to speak of man’s original sin, Pico della Mirandola spoke of man as being “a great magnificent wonder” .
In the transition from middle age to new age the self- and world-image of man began to change. From the middle age image of “miseria” (misery) the humanists like Mirandola designed a new image of man, the “dignitas”, the dignity of man.
I would like to cite out of this remarkable timeless document: The 23-year old Pico (1463-1494 ) begins his famous speech about the dignity of man “Oratio de Hominis Dignitate” with the following words:
“In Arabic scriptures I read the following: the Saracen Abdalas was once asked, what existed in the world which would be considered the most admirable. His answer was: there is nothing more admirable than the human being. This statement is also verified with a word of Mercurius (a God in the Roman religion): “A great wonder, oh Asclepius (in Greek and Roman mythology the god of healing art), is man!…”
“As Genesis tells us, man was created at the end of creation and his place is in the middle of the world… All the other creatures have by nature a fixed place. However, man has gotten the gift of freedom to determine his nature without any restriction. Only man has this freedom of choice… Neither have you been created heavenly, earthly or mortal or immortal..You alone are honored to be free to decide as your own creative sculptor to make yourself into the figure which you yourself prefer…”
It is this concept of freedom which is constitutive for the dignity of man until today. And this concept of freedom has been the great original and fundamental new insight which we owe to Pico della Mirandola. He came up with it contrary to all that was proclaimed as the philosophy of his time.
According to Mirandola, it is man’s freedom of choice he can use to degenerate to a lower, animal creature; but also it is in man’s option to become a higher, god-like creature; if this is his soul’s decision.
In the “Oratio ” Pico della Mirandola unfolds the process of perfectibility of the self-image of man as a purely spiritual educational process so that according to Mirandola man is reborn to his original god-like nature. But this is according to Pico not a one-time act, but a continual process.
Man’s conflicted situation (between misery and dignity) in the world has always been one of the main philosophical questions of all times.
It has been taken up by the French philosopher Albert Camus (1913-1960) in the “Myth of Sisyphus”. Camus was not a believing Christian like Dürer was. He was an existentialist, atheist. But he had a strong belief in man’s inner freedom/dignity and strength to never give up his perseverance and effort to achieve the impossible, the ideal of completion of his nature.
Camus ends the essay of “the Myth of Sisyphus” with the words:
“I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden, again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus to be a happy man.”
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