Transcript of Podcast 1: A New Look at the symbols in Durer’s Melencolia. From Book 1.

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, let’s look at some of the most common theories put forward so far to explain the engraving.
-That it’s a personification of Melancholy, and a self-portrait of Durer as melancholic artist.
-That Durer combined Melancholy’s personification with that of Geometria and Saturn. 
-That the magic square is a talisman of Jupiter. 
-That it’s about Plato and understanding of true or Divine beauty.
-That Durer was influenced by the writings of Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim and Marsilio Ficino.
Well, in fact, all of these are correct.

How? Because the engraving consists of layers of several stories, which are arranged into seven stages of our journey to find our true or absolute self, an inner journey, which is represented by the ladder and its rungs in Melencolia. The main winged figure in the engraving, (which I’ll call ‘Seated Melencolia’), personifies each of these stories in turn by using different symbols in the engraving. So that its intense expression is an amalgam of several faces, which is a brilliant achievement by Durer.

I’m going to tell you briefly about some of the symbolism I’ve written about in my book. And in my next podcasts, I’ll translate this into what it all actually means to us in the modern world. Durer based his ladder on two ladders from literature. One is of the ancient Seven Classical Planets, that is, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Moon and the Sun. The other is of the medieval journey up to absolute truth, the Divine, which Durer found in the writings of Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim.

On the First Rung of Durer’s ladder, Seated Melencolia personifies the beginning of our inner journey, the darkness of our ignorance, represented on one ladder by dark Saturn and on the other by dark Hell. Saturn was considered the darkest planet because it was the most distant from Earth. So Saturn’s symbols in the engraving are all dark and noxious, including the plants of her garland-turned-wreath, the faces and skull hidden in her gown and the hidden snakes, mice, and the bat-like title banner.

We’re able to reach the Second Rung of our journey after we’ve learnt to let some light into our inner darkness. Now Seated Melencolia personifies Jupiter on one ladder, represented by the Magic Square, and Melancholy on the other, one of the Four Humours, who represent Earth, the physical plane.  

We’ll skip a rung and take a look at the Fourth Rung, which is about Plato, personified in two ways – in the guise of the mathematical Geometria with her geometrical solid and all her measuring tools, and by Venus representing Plato’s Ladder of Love, whose rungs take us up the stages of love to the final one where we can suddenly see our absolute, true beauty, which Durer has depicted as Seated Melencolia’s wonder at seeing her reflection in the solid. 

So these three rungs cover the common theories that I mentioned. To learn more about these and the other rungs of the ladder, see my next podcasts, at melencolianway.com or fb melencolianway, and my books, which are firstly, ‘Melencolia Decoded: Book 1: the Academic Journey’ and secondly, ‘The Melencolian Quest, Book 2: The Actual Journey’. What Durer has hidden in Melencolia is extraordinary – a map of humanity’s consciousness and our spiritual Quest through it to find our true, absolute self.