Durer created Melencolia after his mother died, after caring for her for a year in his house. In his words, she “died hard”. He was a devout Catholic, like his mother, but, surrounded by all the Renaissance’s turmoil of ideas about how religion, philosophy and science all fit together, Durer was anxious about his mother’s…
The original engraving of Melencolia is barely bigger than my book. So this poster of it here behind me is many times bigger than the original. But as you zoom into it, more and more, (look at a high resolution image of it, such as at wikipedia), you find its astonishing, intricate detail. Durer must…
Hello. My name’s AJ Perrott and I’ve written a book called Melencolia Decoded. Durer’s iconic, mysterious engraving, Melencolia I, (which you can see behind me), caught my attention years ago and I kept looking at it. Until bit by bit, I worked out what it was all about. But first, before we go into that,…
