The Unconscious and Space: Venice and the work of Albrecht Dürer

This chapter focuses on the unconscious and space in the work of Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). By unearthing the layers of history and mapping the dynamics of Dürer’s spatial unconscious, it proposes a multifaceted argument of his work that considers Dürer not solely as a painter and engraver, but as a theorist of perspective, human proportions and architecture of fortifications, as evident in his treatises and commissions. The proposed analysis of Dürer’s opus examines the nature of his understanding of space and spatiality in the context of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It considers relevant works by Dürer in relation to his place of birth and subsequent travels. The attention is directed to the nature of Dürer’s stay in Venice and the ways in which the city had affected him on various levels including the unconscious. The argument concludes by discussing how Dürer’s spatially innovative work was constituted in relation to melancholia imaginativa.