Melancholic

A miser and a woman seemingly depressed over failed alchemical experiments embody melancholy, the personality trait of sadness, the darkness brought on by an excess of black bile. Just as the woman could not achieve happiness by trying to change lead into gold, the treasures of the earth—jewels and gold—will not lift her spirits. This plate belongs to a series of four engravings designed by Maarten de Vos, the most important painter in late 16th-century Antwerp, and executed by the highly skilled Flemish engraver Pieter d Jode I.