Melancholy.
Genius and madness in art February 17, 2006 - May 17, 2006
Neue Nationalgalerie

At the beginning of 2006, the National Gallery is devoting itself to a general theme of European art: melancholy.
The idea of ​​melancholy is the universal reference for all important masterpieces from antiquity to the present, as it is considered an essential emotional trait of the creative spirit and has been the driving force of great artistic creations at all times. Based on the ancient theory of temperament, according to which the distribution of bodily fluids determines a person's mood, melancholy describes both the state of gloom and depression as well as that of creative melancholy. A connection between melancholy and intelligence, first mentioned in Aristotle's circle and highlighted in the Italian philosophy of the Renaissance by Marsilio Ficino, remains formative to this day.

At the beginning of 2006, the National Gallery is devoting itself to a general theme of European art: melancholy. The idea of ​​melancholy is the universal reference for all important masterpieces from antiquity to the present, as it is considered an essential emotional trait of the creative spirit and has been the driving force of great artistic creations at all times.

Based on the ancient theory of temperament, according to which the distribution of bodily fluids determines a person's mood, melancholy describes both the state of gloom and depression as well as that of creative melancholy.
A connection between melancholy and intelligence, first mentioned in Aristotle's circle and highlighted in the Italian philosophy of the Renaissance by Marsilio Ficino, remains formative to this day. However, with the discovery of the blood circulation in the 17th century, the ancient theory of the four humours no longer corresponded to the scientific standard - however, the fascination with the term melancholy and its associations remained unbroken and triggered strong impulses in a wide variety of areas of knowledge.

Melancholy is the awareness of the finiteness of human knowledge in a world that is perceived as infinite. The desire to break through these barriers and advance to new horizons is still one of the essential definitions of art today. Melancholy and the cult of genius associated with it make art possible.

The exhibition “Melancholy. Genius and Madness in Art” has as its goal nothing less than unraveling the spiritual secret of the creation of art. The great geniuses of art are brought together to create a history of ideas that has never before been written in this epochal form. With numerous masterpieces from major international museums and collections, the exhibition unfolds a panorama of images that takes the visitor on a unique path through more than two millennia of art history:

He also encounters ancient depictions, for example of the Greek hero Ajax, who committed suicide out of shame over the deeds he committed while mentally deranged, as well as a series of portraits and self-portraits of important artists, including Albrecht Dürer, Johann Heinrich Füssli, Philipp Otto Runge, Arnold Böcklin and others Pablo Picasso, which show the face of the withdrawn melancholic, his head, heavy with thought, often resting in his hand. You can also see depictions of people sunk in brooding who become aware of the loss of their own existence in the face of an overpowering nature (Caspar David Friedrich, The Monk by the Sea; Edvard Munch, Melancholy). At the center of the exhibition is the famous “Melencolia I” by Albrecht Dürer: Since its creation in 1514, this mysterious figure, which finds itself in the midst of enigmatic objects, has fed the viewer's thirst for knowledge and is able to explore the limitless cosmos like no other work of melancholy in just a few square centimeters, almost iconically.

In the New National Gallery, Mies van der Rohe's ideal temple of modernity, at the intellectual interface to the worlds of research and texts in the State Library, of visual print and mass media in the Art Library and the world of music in the Philharmonic Hall, the universal idea wins the melancholy now becomes convincingly vivid. Masterpieces of painting, graphics and sculpture, alchemical and scientific instruments, precious manuscripts and documents bring the exciting story of genius and madness through all eras to life.