Melencolia I
The object
the 4×4 magic square on the wall, every row and column summing to 34
The story
Dürer's most enigmatic print. A winged figure of Melancholy broods amid scattered tools of science and craft, refusing to use them. Behind her, a 4×4 magic square: numbers in every row, column, and main diagonal sum to 34. The bottom row reads 4, 15, 14, 1 — combining to '1514', the year Dürer engraved it. The truncated polyhedron on the left stumped geometers for nearly 500 years. Portrait of a genius too depressed to work. Now at the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin @kupferstichkabinett
The reel
The painting
