Albrecht Dürer

The Desperate Man is one of only six etchings by Dürer. Although the print bears no date, it is believed to precede the others due to its experimental nature. The five figures are thought to have been etched directly onto the plate without a preparatory drawing and they have been planted with no unified spatial plane, despite hints at a landscape behind. As such, it has the look of a study sheet produced by Dürer to test the etching technique. Each disparate figure could have been based on an earlier sketch as the man on the left resembles a drawing of Dürer’s brother, Endres, from 1514.

Panofsky speculated that the unusual grouping could be representative of humoral insanity, given Dürer’s preoccupation with the humors which was at a peak in 1514-15. The central figure tearing at his hair in desperation – from whom the print gets its name – represents violent choleric melancholy. Above his left shoulder, a haggard face emerges embodying depression. The jovial youth behind him is sanguinic and the sleeping woman to the right is the emotionless phlegmatic. These are contrasted with the healthy individual resembling Endres, perhaps illustrating the types of melancholy that could take hold of him depending on his personality.