Melancholia
Domenico Fetti (Italian, c. 1589–1623)
c. 1615
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 149.5 × 113 cm (58 7/8 × 44 1/2 in.); Framed: 172.7 × 137.2 × 10.2 cm (68 × 54 × 4 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Through prior bequest of Joseph Winterbotham
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
In this elaborate allegory of the universal human emotion of melancholy, the paintbrushes, palette, and small sculpture in the bottom right reference the painter’s profession; and the hourglass, book, and compass represent other worldly pursuits. Domenico Fetti also included an armillary sphere and telescope in the background on the left to reflect the scientific interests of his patron Ferdinando Gonzaga’s court in Mantua. These interests are further exemplified by the large, bluish sphere in the foreground illustrating the topography of the moon as had been observed only recently by Galileo. Yet despite the achievements signified by the earthly objects whose value is fleeting, the figure of Melancholia contemplates a skull and the inevitability of death.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
