Abstract
Melancholy is a term that has been examined by lots of different diciplinesthrough ages. The most appealing thing about melancholy is that it hasn?t got asingular description. In philosophy, literature, art, medicine, psychiatry, religion andtheology it has been the central issue.Traditionally, melancholy is thought to be the source of suffering andmadness. Since Aristotle?s day great men?s, heroes? and geniuses? temperament hasbeen melancholic. Melancholy is defined as `sacred malady? and it has duality in itsstructure. Melancholy is close to the sublime as much as decadence. Today, havingthe name depression, melancholy is still mysterious.As you will see here, the iconography of melancholy is very rich. Manyaspects of melancholy like sadness, reverie, gloom, violence, fury and despair taketheir place in the art of painting.In Greek, 2500 years before our time, melancholy was identified with thebody fluids theory and this black mood was related to the excess of black bile. Intime, humors and temperaments were also linked to the planets and organs.Melancholy?s planet was Saturn and its organ was the spleen.Every era makes its own description of melancholy and the changingapproaches to melancholy can be seen in the paintings. In early Christian time, theboredom and sloth that were evident among monks was a situation caused byVIIImelancholy and it was thought to be making the devil win the game. The monks andsaints are shown in combat with demonic animals in paintings.European Art was dominated by religion and pain and sadness were in thecenter. Christ?s passions, his tortured figure on the cross and the mourning St Maryand the saints? despondence are often seen in the paintings. To point at the figures?despondence painters use a common head-in-hand pose. Durer?s Melencolia Ietching identifies the artist?s melancholy and the melancholic pose becomes a code.After Durer, this head-in-hand pose often takes place in paintings.In 19th century, melancholy is identified as an illness but it gains a poeticaspect too. In this century, melancholy in the paintings is represented by the feelingof `loss?. By loosing the object of love the great vanity occurs and this huge gap inthe human soul finds its representation in the melancholic paintings. For the paintersmelancholy is appealing because of their own restless minds. There are also a lot ofpaintings in which the traditional melancholy pose isn?t used but we can still talkabout melancholy in them as an esthetic emotion.In the 20th century the line between melancholy and depression isn?t stillclear. By the impact of industrialization, urbanization and wars, melancholycontinues to have its place in the works of art.Keywords: Melancholy, Representation, Painting, Iconography, Europe.IX
