Melencolia I
The Angel and the Wing as the central motif, with the Heavens, the Demon and the Monster and the Crown in a secondary part. From The Met, open access.
What is happening
Conway, 1889 “Action implies contemplation, and contemplation is the subject of the 'Melencolia.'”
Conway, 1889 “Around her lie the symbols of the liberal and industrial arts.”
Conway, 1889 “They were intended to represent the Sanguine and Melancholic temperaments and to shadow forth the religious and intellectual spirits of the day.”
Key · 4 motifs
Tap a motif on the picture, or a line below. Its note opens under the line, with the reading its author gave it.
- Primary motif
- Secondary motifs · 3
The picture
A winged figure sits with her head on her hand, a wreath of leaves in her hair, wings folded behind her; instruments of geometry and building lie about her, a comet and a rainbow stand over the bay, and a bat carries the title across the sky. The square of numbers on the wall is four by four, every row, column and diagonal making thirty-four, with fifteen and fourteen, the year, in the middle of the bottom row; the reading that names that square is modern and is not the archive's to give, so it is recorded and left unread. By eye
Decoded: every motif is marked, and each mark carries the reading its author gave it, quoted from the text, or says that it is observed on the picture and not read. The composition, the picture read whole in our own words, comes with the entry.
No entry yet for this motif. The wall gathers every work that carries it.
By eye The central motif, the seated figure, her head on her hand, her wings folded and rising behind her.
Conway, 1889 “The great genius with her mighty wings sits there, wrapt in thought.”
Conway, 1889 “Melancholic is she; for the solemnity of a pondering mind, held silent in its holy passion, is upon her.”
Conway, 1889 “the first representing the melancholic or student's temperament, the second the sanguine temperament characteristic of the man of action”
Completion, and in the Kabbalistic reading the first sephirah, the point at which the work is no longer yours.
By eye A secondary motif, the band of leaves about her head, a fillet and not a crown, filed here as the nearest motif the archive holds.
Conway, 1889 “Her head is bound about with a myrtle fillet, symbolic of right, and therefore unfading, thought.”
Symbolica Conway calls the leaves myrtle. Whether they are myrtle, watercress or water ranunculus is argued over, and the entry decides nothing here that the plate cannot show.
No entry yet for this motif. The wall gathers every work that carries it.
By eye A secondary motif, the rainbow and the comet over the bay, and the water under them.
Symbolica Conway's chapters read the figure and the instruments and name neither the comet nor the rainbow. Observed on the print, and left unread rather than guessed.
No entry yet for this motif. The wall gathers every work that carries it.
By eye A secondary motif, the winged creature carrying the banner that names the print.
Symbolica The title is not lettered on the plate but carried across it by a winged animal. Conway names the wings, the fillet and the instruments and does not name this creature. Observed on the print, and left unread rather than guessed.
Also carrying the Angel and the Wing
16 works, 5 with it as the central motif. The symbol.
Also carrying the Heavens
15 works. The symbol.
Also carrying the Demon and the Monster
6 works. The symbol.
Also carrying the Crown
10 works. The symbol.
By the same hand
In the same series
Record
One symbol a week, decoded.
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