Puzzles
An artist hid a magic square in an engraving, with the year he made it built in
In his 1514 engraving Melencolia I, Albrecht Dürer included a 4x4 magic square where every row, column, and diagonal adds up to 34. Look at the bottom middle two cells and you'll find something extra hidden in plain sight. What is it?
Reveal the answer
The two center cells of the bottom row read 15 and 14, together spelling out 1514, the year Dürer made the engraving. It's one of the earliest magic squares known in European art, and unlike the ancient Lo Shu square, Dürer's version also sums to 34 across each 2x2 quadrant and the four corner cells, a much harder pattern to construct by hand.