The Anatomy of Melancholy

What gives more contentment than reading, walking, and looking at maps, pictures, statues, jewels, and marbles, which some praise so highly? The works Phidias made long ago were so exquisite and pleasing to behold that, as Chrysostom thinks, anyone who is ill, troubled in mind, or unable to sleep for grief need only stand before one of Phidias’s statues to forget every care and whatever else troubles him in an instant.

Others are equally captivated by the works of Michelangelo, Raphael of Urbino, Francesco Francia, and the many Italian and Dutch painters who excelled in their time. They find it wonderfully pleasing to look at elegant architecture, decorative designs, escutcheons and coats of arms; to read books about such things; and to examine old coins of various kinds in a fine gallery, works of craftsmanship, optical glasses, ancient relics, Roman antiquities, and a variety of colours.

A good picture is “a counterfeit truth and silent poetry.” And though, as Vives says, “things made by art delight us, but soon we tire of them”—artificial curiosities please only for a time—who will not be moved by them while that pleasure lasts?

When Achilles was tormented and saddened by the loss of his dear friend Patroclus, his mother Thetis brought him a most elaborate and finely wrought shield made by Vulcan. On it were engraved the sun, moon, stars, planets, sea, and land; men fighting, running, and riding; women scolding; hills, valleys, towns, castles, brooks, rivers, trees, and so forth, with many beautiful landscapes and scenes in perspective. The sight delighted him immensely and greatly relieved his grief.

At once, captivated by the sight, with sorrow soothed, He took delight, holding the god’s splendid gifts in his hands.

Who would not be moved in the same way, or by seeing the well-furnished cloisters and galleries of the Roman cardinals, so richly stocked with modern paintings, ancient statues, and antiquities? “Since one refreshes oneself by looking and reading together”: who would not be moved simply by seeing their pictures and reading the descriptions, as Boissard aptly adds? Bozius, Pomponius Laetus, Marlianus, Schottus, Cavalieri, Ligorio, and others, including Boissard himself, have lately done this well.

Or, in princely cabinets of curiosities, such as the grand duke’s at Florence, in Felix Platter’s at Basel, or in noblemen’s houses, to see so many varied costumes and faces, so many rare and exquisite representations of people, birds, beasts, and the like; to see the excellent landscapes, Dutch works, and intricate engravings of Sadeler of Prague, Albrecht Dürer, Goltzius, Vrints, and others; such delightful scenes in perspective, Indian feather pictures, Chinese wares, frames, marvellous moving devices, foreign curiosities, and so forth.