Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-21

III hauSen mas spent III years Oh his NE
~ gazing at Durer's engraving, "Melen-
cola T." and has at last come to what
a. A he thinks is solution of the mystery
which for centuries has bafied artists and
learned men the world over.
The celebrated copper engraving was done
by Durer in 1914. Since then more than 1900
books have been written on the subject, and
for four centuries Austrian and German
philosophers have argued and battled in vain
over the possible meaning of this mystifying
picture. Whenever an old scrap Of paper or
faded sketch bearing the signature Of. the
master was discovered in some forgotten chest
of drawers, Immediately it sent thrill OF
expectation through the hearts OF investl-
gators. Would it at last solve the mystery OF
"Melencolia T.? they wondered. But always
they were disappointed and had to go on
theoriZing.
Albrecht Durer who was third Of the ID
children his mother bore, was goldsmith by
trade and lived in Nurnberg when that ancient
city was called the Venice Of Germany" be-
cause of its ability to govern itself. Durer
achieved fame there during the close Of the
fifteenth century, when Germany was in state
of religious agitation. Several of his wood
cuts, his Apocalypse" and notably his SKETCH
"Babylonian Woman" served to enlighten the
people when books were forbidden They
pointed the way to religious freedom They
were the beginning of the young goldsmiths
great career as q painter, engraver and
sculptor. ,... ..> ..
THE copper engraving, "Melencolia t. upon
- which Herr Stockhausen has worked for 10
years, is a curiously fascinating picture in many
respects One cannot help but wonder what
the feelings are that possess the soul OF. this
strange woman sitting with her cheek resting
ON her left hand while the right falls upon
closed book, barely retaining Its hold OF the
compass which has measured out nothing for
her She stares into vacancy and her brain is
tired, or so 1t seems. At her feet are imple-
ments of art. Of lawful and unlawful science.
all used In vain. The magic crystal has dis
closed nothing. Her hair is unbound though
1t lust keeps up the laurel crown upon her
brow "AN we know Is that nothing can be
known" she seems to think On her right Is
sleeping dog, tired, too, and directly above the
animal a singular block of stone, the stumbling
block, perhaps, barring the way to the severn
runged ladder in the rear of the picture. The
meaning of the rock has remained obscure,
though scholars and artists have pOndered over
it for years. Herr Stockhausen alone seems
to have solved the riddle.
On the wall of the massive structure In the
right half of the picture may be seen an hour
glass, empty scales and bell under which a
quadrangle shows the mystical numbers to 16,
totaling "a any way one counts them. These
numbers have been reckoned over and over
again for centuries, but to no purpose. The
heavens in the picture show comet and
rainbow but no more. The big bat lowering
over the water holds outstretched between its
claws a scroll upon which Is written "Melen-
cola l." Upon grindstone beside the thinking
woman perches the form of a winged angel,
like a respondent Cupid whose frolics are over
Sphinxlike the woman sits there weighed
down with thought, apparently disdaining her
womanhood, yet restessly locking into the I'M
solved mysteries of existence. She broodS
forever, and yet her wings seem eager to essay
another fight into the shadows of the in
scrutable. So much for the picture one
beholdS it.
Now comes Herr Stockhausen, publisher and
noted man of learning, who claims he has
solved the four-century-old riddle.
Others have analysed single portions of the
picture, Melencolia T." says he in the Neues
Wiener Journal. "They have done SO in a
more or less convincing manner, but they never
got the fundamental conception of it nor the
definite purpose which Durer had in mind
when he made it. And this for the simple
reason that there wasn't any portentous or
symbolic purpose to 1t. My claim is that
Durers Melencolia + is the most formidable
puzzle picture ever conceived by man, not
because it has puzzled the world for centuries,
but because it contains key drawings which
characterize the spirit and essence of humanism.
1T may make you smile to think that have
studied this picture for 10 years, that have
sat in front of it day after day and night after
night, trying to, find what so many others have
failed to find. You may believe / am crazy
for having read every book and every pamphlet
ever published about it, but such is the fact
nevertheless, the fact Of strange pictures
fascination. To be quite truthful, however, ]
must say that did not start out to discover
the leitmotif which so many tried to read In
the lines of the master. / confess that I was