Just heard on the radio a wonderful show about Dürer as part of the ‘Germany memories of a Nation’ by Neil MacGregor. I have always been fascinated by the print and its wonderful symbols. I was less familiar with the print of the Knight. I was also intrigued to hear MacGreor and a german art historian Horst Bredekamp use both prints together to sort of form a twin self portrait of Germany… quoting from the show

The prints of Melancholia and that of the Knight are famous not just for the supreme skill of their making they’ve become in a sense twin self portraits of Germany in her two contradictory aspects. The Knight representing forceful action, Melancholia inward looking contemplation. its hard to think of any other European nation, that visualises itself in images of such subtlety and such complexity, and interpretations of the prints and their significance have echoed down the centuries, playing a unique role in the history of German identity.

‘I think that one will not find two other objects that embody the self definition of German soul so to speak, in 19th century.’ Art historian Horst Bredekamp. ‘The knight surrounded by the devil and a landscape that is against everything that he does, this for fills the self definition of the German who goes with an iron heart his way, so in this sense, the Knight became the symbol of stead fastness following his line forward, without looking to enemies or barriers, that would pull him off from his way. The second is the Melancholia, which is the opposite, the German soul was defined deeper than in any other nation, but this depth, does not mean a deeper value, but a deeper complexity and that means that also elements of self destruction of reflection that embraces itself after a moment that it even becomes mad. So this is a bi polar definition of, so to speak of the German soul, in the nineteenth century which can in no other object be seen in this clarity, so to speak. clarity… I say that ironically in these two pieces…’