Melancholy

Francesco Hayez painted Melancholy around 1840, depicting a single female figure in a state of meditative sadness — the classical temperament of melancholy associated with creative genius and artistic sensitivity since the Renaissance. The subject was among the most popular in European Romantic painting: the solitary figure absorbed in internal experience, removed from social engagement into a private world of thought and feeling. Hayez's treatment gives the melancholic figure the warm coloring and fluid figure modeling of his mature Venetian-influenced style, creating an image of Romantic sensibility that was both personally expressive and commercially very successful.

The painting demonstrates Hayez's mastery of flesh tones and his characteristic soft, atmospheric treatment of backgrounds. The subject's introspective pose and downcast eyes are modeled with subtle gradations of light that reveal his training in Venetian colorism.