DURER'S ALLURE
Geometric Sculpture
One of my favorite works of all time, Melancholia I by Albrecht Dürer, is a deep trip into the psyche of the artist or thinker through allegory and symbolism. In a world of chaos, humankind attempts to find pattern and harmony, whether in science, mathematics, art or form.
The thinker and creator is still an agent of inspiration, and in times they succumb to the torment of spiritual lethologica, a dry spell of creative flow. It can lead to torment and sorrow, it can lead to some of the greatest works of their time.
This work, with it's magic cube of sudoku-style grid of numbers, to the mysterious geometric masonry resting in the background, has more to the image than just traditional symbolism and references to mythologies. This geometric shape, one that has appeared in other works, is an alluring form that seems to allude many references in other avenues of life. It has a peculiar shape of a triangular rhombohedron, composed of a triangle on top of a trapezoid, and resembles a droplet, petal or teardrop shape.
I wanted to see if the shape could be realized in three dimensions, something I could replicate and hold in my hand. Thinking this would be easy, I gave the prompt to one of the more recent A.I. tools, providing the above image and direction to calculate the polygon's angles and the ratio of side lengths. It was able to analyze the shape efficiently enough, but couldn't calculate size without a rule of measurement.
Instead I endeavored to do it the old school way, with pen and paper.
I wanted to see if the shape could be realized in three dimensions, something I could replicate and hold in my hand.
Thinking this would be easy, I gave the prompt to one of the more recent A.I. tools, providing the above image and direction to calculate the polygon's angles and the ratio of side lengths. It was able to analyze the shape efficiently enough, but couldn't calculate size without a rule of measurement.
Instead I endeavored to do it the old school way, with pen and paper. Geometric sketches show the unfolded three dimensional form on paper.
With a good base stencil, the form was cut out, and held together with tabs on some edges for adhesive.
The first version was a bit flimsy, sketched onto grid paper, but folded successfully.
The angles of the top and bottom triangle face had to be determined after the large edges were aligned. It was exciting to find the shape was so similar to the geometric form found in Melancholia I. The height to width ratio was a bit off from the reference yet when folded wasn't far off. The golden ratio was my initial goal to use, but it would have been even more elongated on the y-axis, so I kept somewhere in the middle.
The second version, printed on a thicker printer paper, held as a stronger structure. A continuation of the grid onto the second version left a useful template guide for an illustration.
Red ink accents the edges with a lattice work of droplet shapes, the geometric pattern a quick way to fill in the empty space and give it character.
With the second version complete, this project pays homage to the original droplet sculpture feature on my site, and the works of the past.
Melancholia Droplet (version 2), 2024. Paper, glue, ink.
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