Melancholy
Pittura, Astratto informale, Acrilico, 50x70x2.5cm
The artist wanted to represent what a strange feeling melancholy is. "Strange" in the sense that one is unable to just define melancholy as a state of sadness, but rather as a complex condition that could represent the desire to find a past situation that has brought much joy and satisfaction to the person. Melancholy would be that enchanting souvenir that is no longer present in the life of the person.
The word melancholy is borrowed from Latin melancholia, transcribed itself from Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía) composed of μέλας (mélas), "black" and χολή (Khole), "bile". So etymologically the word means black bile. This refers to the Hippocratic theory of humors saying that the body possesses four moods, and each one of them determines our temper. These four moods are the blood, the lymph, the yellow bile and the black bile. Therefore the temper is blood when blood predominates, lymphatic whenever lymph leads, bile=ious when it is the yellow bile, and finally melancholy when it’s the black bile. And this black bile caused a sadness that was exclusive to geniuses.
Melancholy was considered a source of geniality and madness that would cause grief and not just reduced, by our societies, to a single pathology, sadness, or distaste for life.
Melancholy, in the ancient sense, would allow to mourn, to surpass or to find some meaning in life, in other words, it is a passage in times of crisis (which does not always lead to a negative results).
Here, the term melancholy is clearly represented by the artist as a transition and a sublimation of a person’s internal state.
The word melancholy is borrowed from Latin melancholia, transcribed itself from Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía) composed of μέλας (mélas), "black" and χολή (Khole), "bile". So etymologically the word means black bile. This refers to the Hippocratic theory of humors saying that the body possesses four moods, and each one of them determines our temper. These four moods are the blood, the lymph, the yellow bile and the black bile. Therefore the temper is blood when blood predominates, lymphatic whenever lymph leads, bile=ious when it is the yellow bile, and finally melancholy when it’s the black bile. And this black bile caused a sadness that was exclusive to geniuses.
Melancholy was considered a source of geniality and madness that would cause grief and not just reduced, by our societies, to a single pathology, sadness, or distaste for life.
Melancholy, in the ancient sense, would allow to mourn, to surpass or to find some meaning in life, in other words, it is a passage in times of crisis (which does not always lead to a negative results).
Here, the term melancholy is clearly represented by the artist as a transition and a sublimation of a person’s internal state.
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