{
"data": {
"id": 108501,
"accession_number": "1926.211",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Melencolia I, 1514. Albrecht D\u00fcrer (German, 1471\u20131528). Engraving; platemark: 23.8 x 18.9 cm (9 3/8 x 7 7/16 in.); sheet: 24.5 x 19.4 cm (9 5/8 x 7 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., in memory of Ralph King, 1926.211",
"current_location": "101B Prints & Drawings",
"title": "Melencolia I",
"creation_date": "1514",
"creation_date_earliest": 1514,
"creation_date_latest": 1514,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Germany"
],
"technique": "engraving",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Engraving",
"type": "Print",
"measurements": "Platemark: 23.8 x 18.9 cm (9 3/8 x 7 7/16 in.); Sheet: 24.5 x 19.4 cm (9 5/8 x 7 5/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"platemark": {
"height": 0.238,
"height_inch": 9,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.189,
"width_inch": 7,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375
},
"sheet": {
"height": 0.245,
"height_inch": 9,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.194,
"width_inch": 7,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": "II/II",
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 357312,
"title": "Prints of the Fifteenth to Twentieth Century from the Museum Collection",
"description": "Prints of the Fifteenth to Twentieth Century from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 5-September 12, 1934).",
"opening_date": "1934-06-05T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 356365,
"title": "16th Century Prints from the Museum Collection",
"description": "16th Century Prints from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 4-29, 1935).",
"opening_date": "1935-12-04T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 345396,
"title": "Inaugural Exhibition of the New Print Gallery - Prints from the Museum Collection",
"description": "Inaugural Exhibition of the New Print Gallery - Prints from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 10-November 13, 1938).",
"opening_date": "1938-08-10T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 345694,
"title": "16th Century German Engravings",
"description": "16th Century German Engravings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1938-January 22, 1939).",
"opening_date": "1938-12-13T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312341,
"title": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition",
"description": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).",
"opening_date": "1941-06-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301184,
"title": "Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition",
"description": "Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).",
"opening_date": "1958-03-03T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 302205,
"title": "Art and Humanism in the Renaissance",
"description": "Art and Humanism in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 23-February 25, 1962).",
"opening_date": "1962-01-23T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 350269,
"title": "Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection",
"description": "Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).",
"opening_date": "1965-05-06T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 350752,
"title": "Old Master Prints and Drawings",
"description": "Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-February 28, 1967).",
"opening_date": "1966-07-29T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301217,
"title": "The Scholar in Art",
"description": "The Scholar in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 19-28, 1968).",
"opening_date": "1968-04-19T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301400,
"title": "Albrecht D\u00fcrer - 500th Anniversary",
"description": "Albrecht D\u00fcrer - 500th Anniversary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 19-March 28, 1971).",
"opening_date": "1971-02-19T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 445328,
"title": "Durer",
"description": "Durer. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (April 6-May 8, 1971).",
"opening_date": "1971-04-06T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 302152,
"title": "The Vocabulary of Prints",
"description": "The Vocabulary of Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 29-December 31, 1975).",
"opening_date": "1975-07-29T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304516,
"title": "Eight Masters of the Print",
"description": "Eight Masters of the Print. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 14, 1980-January 18, 1981).",
"opening_date": "1980-10-14T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311444,
"title": "Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum",
"description": "Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).",
"opening_date": "1991-06-07T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 181802,
"title": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).",
"opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 200271,
"title": "Picasso and the Mysteries of Life: La Vie",
"description": "Picasso and the Mysteries of Life: La Vie. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-April 21, 2013).",
"opening_date": "2012-12-12T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 205194,
"title": "D\u00fcrer's Women: Images of Devotion and Desire",
"description": "D\u00fcrer's Women: Images of Devotion and Desire. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 28, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2014-06-22T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 699500,
"title": "The Renaissance Engraver at Work",
"description": "The Renaissance Engraver at Work. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 5-November 1, 2026).",
"opening_date": "2026-07-05T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "A crowning achievement of Albrecht D\u00fcrer\u2019s engraved works, Melencolia I captivates the viewer with abundant variety. Melancholy, or sadness, was associated with introspective, creative minds, and here, D\u00fcrer personified it as an immobilized, winged figure, unable to use the tools scattered around her. A magic square whose numbers total 34 in all directions, an emaciated dog, an hourglass, and a ladder evoke time, order, suffering, life, and death. Despite its implication of inner turmoil, the engraving demonstrates D\u00fcrer\u2019s expertise in capturing visual perception. Light behaves differently against a transparent hourglass, a bursting comet, a rainbow, and a geometric stone.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1362177"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1926.211-melencolia-i"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Sims, Lowery Stokes. The persistence of geometry: form, content, and culture in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.",
"page_number": "no. 25, p. 117, repr. p. 50 & tailpiece.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "T. S. \u201cD\u00fcrer\u2019s Melancholia.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 13, no. 7 (July 1926): 157\u2013159.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 159; Reproduced: p. 157",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136945"
},
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry. \"Engravings by Albrect D\u00fcrer.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 22, no. 4 (April 1935): 59-64.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 64",
"url": "jstor.org/stable/25137693"
},
{
"citation": "Milliken, William. \"Silver Jubilee Exhibition.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no.6 (June 1941): 88-108",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 90",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25140932"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 644",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n120"
},
{
"citation": "Petcu, Elizabeth J. \u201cD\u00fcrer's Victoria: Contending with the Uncertainty of Measurement.\u201d The Art Bulletin 107, n. 4 (December 2025): 37-66.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 59, 61; Reproduced: p. 60, fig. 17",
"url": ""
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Meder 75",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1926.211",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.211/1926.211_web.jpg",
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"filesize": "581035",
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"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.211/1926.211_print.jpg",
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., in memory of Ralph King",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": "These Galleries are the Gift of James and Hanna Bartlett",
"athena_id": 108501,
"creators": [
{
"id": 11617,
"description": "Albrecht D\u00fcrer (German, 1471\u20131528)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1471",
"death_year": "1528",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1926-06-09T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1514,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1514",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-08-20 12:30:34.106000"
}
}