Hans Weitzel: Zu den HimmelsphŠnomenen auf A. DŸrers Stich Melencolia
The celestial body of DŸrerÕs engraving Melencolia×I is connected with his
painting of a meteor, the Raveningham-painting; it is shown that the origin of
this painting owns to the impact of the meteor of Ensisheim in 1492. Until now
the celestial body, the balance, and the magic square are nearly consistently
interpreted as the planet Saturn, the zodiac sign Libra, and the planet
Jupiter, and the melancholy woman is subject to these heavenly bodies.
Consequently, neoplatonic astrology has been the main focus of the engraving;
including the rainbow, the engraving has also been interpreted biblically. The
present paper, however, places emphasis on problems of the geometry as the
reason of melancholy. Any astronomical meaning of the configuration of the
numbers of the magic square is discarded.
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