chaosophia218:Albrecht Dürer - Magic Square, “Melancholia I”, 1514.Magic Squares represent a mathema
chaosophia218:Albrecht Dürer - Magic Square, “Melancholia I”, 1514.Magic Squares represent a mathematical convergence of the verbal/syntactical and the visual/compositional. From the simple and elegant Lo Shu sequence from Ancient China to the baroque and heady formulations of the Renaissance magicians, the mystery and fascination of magic squares have a long and interesting cultural history that spans over five thousand years, four continents and dozens of systems of thought.Dürer’s Magic Square has a magic constant 34.The numbers 15 and 14 appear in the middle of the bottom row, indicating the date of the engraving, 1514. It has the additional property that the sums in any of the four quadrants, as well as the sum of the middle four numbers, are all 34. It is thus a Gnomon Magic Square. In addition, any pair of numbers symmetrically placed about the center of the square sums to 17, a property making the square even more magical. -- source link