Before the English physician Sir Richard Blackmore (1654-1729) first coined the term “depression” in the 18th century, the word used to define a state of sadness, apathy and isolation was “melancholy.” The word has its roots in Greek voices melon and joleliterally, “black bile”, since, until the birth of modern medicine, it was believed that an imbalance of this bodily humor was responsible for the appearance of melancholy.
States of sadness and apathy are inherent to human beings. In all historical periods we find characters who have found themselves in a similar mental state, and Throughout the centuries, artists have collected the concept of melancholy-depression through diverse and varied interpretations.. Today we bring you 7 masterpieces that reflect melancholy.
From Albrecht Dürer in the 15th century (a German humanist deeply interested in melancholy and the different ways in which it manifests itself) to painters of the 20th century and even the 21st, passing through the brilliant (and depressive) Van Gogh; melancholy/depression has always been present in the history of art. Let’s see it through this brief tour.
1. Melancholy I (Albrecht Dürer)
The title of this wonderful engraving, which we see on a type of banner held by a chilling bat, leaves no room for doubt as to its meaning. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) wanted to represent melancholy; specifically (and according to some theories) the so-called “imaginative” melancholy, the first of them all, as the number one that accompanies the feeling would refer.
Imaginative melancholy is what invades artists and intellectuals. Dürer represents it to us through a winged figure who directs his gaze forward but who, paradoxically, seems to see nothing. He is the artist, the creator (as attested by the various objects scattered around him), immersed in his own self, saddened by not being able to complete everything that boils in his brain, since life It is limited. The winged figure raises his hand to his cheek, a gesture traditionally associated with melancholy and the “Saturnian humor” of artists..
2. Sorry old man (At the Gates of Eternity), by Vincent Van Gogh
This powerful figure, folded over itself and whose face we do not glimpse (which makes it even more anonymous and, therefore, universal), was created by Vincent Van Gogh in 1890, just two months before his death. The painting is based on a series of previous lithographs by the artist, which, in turn, were based on a series of drawings that the painter had made of an elderly acquaintance of his, titled Exhausted.
Both the explicit attitude of the old man and the title of the works offer clear evidence of what Van Gogh intended to capture. In the painting, specifically, we see an old man somewhere between desperate and tired, who covers his face with regret while he falls, heavily, into a chair. One of the lithographs was titled At the Gates of Eternity, which, together with the thought that the artist had only a couple of months to live, actually raises more than one shudder.
It is known that Van Gogh suffered from a mental disorder that worsened over the years. A disorder that, by the way, experts have not been able to give a name to. Some lean towards a manic-depressive disorder, which, according to sources, led him to suicide. The suicide theory, however, has been revised numerous times.
3. Mariana (John Everett Millais)
The Pre-Raphaelites, that anti-academic group of the mid-19th century, took inspiration for their paintings from the legends of the Arthurian cycle, the poems of Dante and William Shakespeare, among many others. In this case, Millais is inspired by the Shakespearean character of Mariana, who appears in the play Measure for Measure of the English bard, but passed through the romantic filter of the poet Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), another recurring source of inspiration for the Pre-Raphaelites.
The painter captures the woman at the moment of getting up, tired and apathetic, from her seat. In both Shakespeare’s and Tennyson’s plays, Mariana is repudiated by her fiancé when her dowry for her wedding goes down with the ship carrying her. Since then, The young woman locks herself in a house (and in herself) and falls into a pit of absolute blackness.
Several elements of this beautiful table refer to the loneliness and bitterness of women. First, the autumn leaves that, in addition to falling, enter the room, a symbol of the passage of time and eternal waiting. On the other hand, the earthy colors and the low light in the environment tell us about a closed and claustrophobic environment, with very little room for hope.
4. Hopeless (Frida Kahlo)
The title leaves no doubt. What Frida wrote on the back of the painting, neither: “I no longer have the slightest hope left… everything moves to the rhythm of what my belly dictates…”.
During those years, the artist suffered from very serious weight loss as a result of her lack of appetite, probably caused by her precarious state of health, both physical and mental. Frida represents herself lying naked on a bed, looking at us out of the corner of her eye as if asking for help (or perhaps with resignation).. From his mouth comes a kind of funnel where, in a ghostly way, different foods enter, among which we see a sugar skull that bears his name. Behind the bed and the funnel, an almost lunar landscape, dry and without a hint of hope, witnesses the scene.
5. morning sun (Edward Hopper)
Few artists have portrayed melancholy and isolation like Edward Hopper (1882-1967). His paintings tell us about the desperate silence into which human beings enter to escape from a civilization. inhuman; The long spaces between the figures, together with the lack of interaction they present, show with stark reality the lack of (true) communication in the contemporary world.
In morning sun (1952), Hopper shows a woman sitting on her bed, alone (of course!) lost in her own thoughts or, perhaps, not thinking anything specific. Her hieratic figure and her expression, somewhere between tired and absent, convey the idea of a distance and a notable abstraction. Only the light of the new day, which penetrates through the window and gently illuminates it, shows a glimmer of hope.
The Catalan artist Isidre Nonell (1872-1911) made various portraits of Consuelo Giménez Escuder, a gypsy teenager with whom he had a close relationship. (according to some, of a sentimental nature). The fact is that the young woman died, at only seventeen years old, in an absolutely tragic way: one night, a strong storm collapsed a wall on the hut where Consuelo lived with her grandmother Josefa. Nonell broke inside. The girl’s death was probably one of the biggest and hardest blows of his life.
Consuelo is the protagonist of many of Nonell’s paintings. Here we are specifically talking about one dated 1902, currently kept in a private collection, which shows the young woman disheveled and dejected, with her gaze downcast and absent. The neutral background supports the feeling of sadness, a feeling that not even Consuelo’s yellow attire can cheer up. It seems as if both Nonell and the young woman knew what fate had in store for them…
7. crow tree (Caspar David Friedrich)
Friedrich (1774-1840) is one of the great standard-bearers of Romanticism. His landscapes are not simple views, but represent states of mind that, more than often, are not joyful (how could he be otherwise, if he is a romantic painter?).
Friedrich himself suffered from mental disorders throughout his life, and combined episodes of euphoria with others of withdrawal and loneliness. His crow tree It is probably one of his most famous paintings: In it we see a large, woody tree, inevitably weighed down by the years, bathed in beautiful sunset colors. From its almost leafless crown some crows take flight, an obvious symbol of the transience of life and the inevitability of death. The atmosphere is somber and even gloomy; the pictorial expression of an absolutely hopeless feeling.
