Durer & The Magic Square (1514)

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⬅Durer's Square





Albrecht Durer
Melancolia I
(1514)

Albrecht Durer's square
let Melencolia come up for air.

In rows and columns
numbers are everywhere.

One through sixteen are seen
in a pattern that's pretty keen.

Tell the son! Tell the daughter!
The numbers are in magical order
   

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Each row and each column adds up to the same total. Each sum equals 34.

Let your melancholy take a bath
Let your calculator do the math

Each diagonal (16 + 10 + 7 +1) and (13 + 11 + 6 + 4) adds up to 34.

Melancholy through the looking glass
Expels all emotions from the morass

                              Any single square of 4 by 4 is also four squares of 2 by 2





In Durer's square, each of these 2 by 2  squares also add up to 34.

Sons &  daughters create more sons & daughters
Future generations follow in order

Durer's MAGIC SQUARE is exactly five hundred years old
In 2014, that very bold statement  is indisputably true
MAGIC's most popular descendent
Goes by the name Sudoku.

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