In the context of Melencolia I, explain the Iconography of the Interpretations.
According to Panofsky, who wrote about the print three times between 1923 and 1964, Melencolia I combines the traditional iconographies of melancholy and geometry, both governed by Saturn. Geometry was one of the Seven Liberal Arts and its mastery was considered vital to the creation of high art, which had been revolutionised by new understandings of perspective. In the engraving, symbols of geometry, measurement, and trades are numerous: the compass, the scale, the hammer and nails, the plane and saw, the sphere and the unusual polyhedron. Panofsky examined earlier personifications of geometry and found much similarity between Dürer's engraving and an allegory of geometry from Gregor Reisch's Margarita philosophica (1503), a popular encyclopedia.Other aspects of the print reflect the traditional symbolism of melancholy, such as the bat, emaciated dog, purse and keys. The figure wears a wreath of "wet" plants to counteract the dryness of melancholy, and she has the dark face and dishevelled appearance associated with the melancholic. The intensity of her gaze, however, suggests an intent to depart from traditional depictions of this temperament. The magic square is a talisman of Jupiter, an auspicious planet that fends off melancholy—different square sizes were associated with different planets, with the 4×4 square representing Jupiter. Even the distant seascape, with small islands of flooded trees, relates to Saturn, the "lord of the sea", and his control of floods and tides.Panofsky believed that Dürer's understanding of melancholy was influenced by the writings of the German humanist Cornelius Agrippa, and before him Marsilio Ficino. Ficino thought that most intellectuals were influenced by Saturn and were thus melancholic. He equated melancholia with elevation of the intellect, since black bile "raises thought to the comprehension of the highest, because it corresponds to the highest of the planets". Before the Renaissance, melancholics were portrayed as embodying the vice of acedia, meaning spiritual sloth. Ficino and Agrippa's writing gave melancholia positive connotations, associating it with flights of genius. As art historian Philip Sohm summarizes, Ficino and Agrippa gave Renaissance intellectuals a "Neoplatonic conception of melancholy as divine inspiration ... Under the influence of Saturn, ... the melancholic imagination could be led to remarkable achievements in the arts".Agrippa defined three types of melancholic genius in his De occulta philosophia. The first, melancholia imaginativa, affected artists, whose imaginative faculty was considered stronger than their reason (compared with, e.g., scientists) or intuitive mind (e.g., theologians). Dürer might have been referring to this first type of melancholia, the artist's, by the "I" in the title. Melancholia was thought to attract daemons that produced bouts of frenzy and ecstasy in the afflicted, lifting the mind toward genius. In Panofsky's summary, the imaginative melancholic, the subject of Dürer's print, "typifies the first, or least exalted, form of human ingenuity. She can invent and build, and she can think ... but she has no access to the metaphysical world ... [She] belongs in fact to those who 'cannot extend their thought beyond the limits of space.' Hers is the inertia of a being which renounces what it could reach because it cannot reach for what it longs." Dürer's personification of melancholia is of "a being to whom her allotted realm seems intolerably restricted—of a being whose thoughts 'have reached the limit'". Melencolia I portrays a state of lost inspiration: the figure is "surrounded by the instruments of creative work, but sadly brooding with a feeling that she is achieving nothing."Autobiography runs through many of the interpretations of Melencolia I, including Panofsky's. Iván Fenyő considered the print a representation of an artist beset by a loss of confidence, saying: "shortly before [Dürer] drew Melancholy, he wrote: 'what is beautiful I do not know' ... Melancholy is a lyric confession, the self-conscious introspection of the Renaissance artist, unprecedented in northern art. Erwin Panofsky is right in considering this admirable plate the spiritual self-portrait of Dürer."
Within the magic square of Melencolia § I, the combinations to be recognized are varied and surprising: «each corner group, formed by four squares (16, 3, 5, 10 - 2, 13, 11, 8 - 9, 6, 4, 15 – 7, 12, 14, 1), has the sum of 34. The same number is obtained by adding the digits of the central group (10, 11, 6, 7), but also those of the corner squares (16, 13, 4, 1). The same result is obtained by adding the digits on the horizontal, vertical, diagonal lines. We always get 34. In total, the number occurs sixteen times. Sixteen is the total number of enclosed squares. This is a property that also appears in Henricus Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim's Tabula Jovis, but which has gone unnoticed by many, perhaps because it does not appear in the list of its characteristics, drawn up by the author himself. The characteristic of the sums of each zone is also shared in the analogous schemes of Mescupolo and Paracelsus. Despite the similarity with these, the magic square of Melencolia § I does not seem chosen to follow a hermetic tradition. The unspoken exclusivity of this type of square may be the reason for the dedication to Jupiter (privileged among the gods and the greatest of the planets) and for Dürer's choice. In truth, its most reliable source is found in the description that Luca Pacioli proposes as a pleasant curiosity [«ligiadro solazo» (f. 122r)], attributing its origin to the greatest astronomers, "Ptolomeo al humasar ali, al fragano, Geber and to all the others ". These "have dedicated to Jupiter [planet «Giove»]  the figure made up of 4 squares on each side, with the numbers arranged in such a way as to obtain 34 for each direction, that is 16, 3, 2, 13 and in the following line 5, 10, 11, 8, therefore in the third line 9 [etc.] as seen in the margin."»  Since this indicated scheme does not appear in the manuscript, it has been completed with blue digits (see image). The magic square of Melencolia § I represents a jovial exercise (lat. iovialis, from Iovis) to counter the influences of melancholy. In the lower center, the union of the numbers 15 and 14 indicates a very sad year.
Iconography saw Erwin Panofsky Melancholia Cornelius Agrippa Neoplatonic De occulta philosophia plane magic square black bile melancholia allegory acedia personification geometry Seven Liberal Arts Marsilio Ficino Gregor Reisch state daemons compass Geometry engraving polyhedron humanist temperament