Whenever I stumble on anything from Albrecht Durer, the 16th century German artist, I am immediately humbled by the magnificence of his works. His paintings are beautiful, combining delicacy and strength to create a naturalism that was unusual in its time. This self-portrait is one of my favorite pieces of portraiture. His engravings are masterpieces of the art, dense with detail and hidden meaning. Many are allegorical and some are just plain interesting such as this engraving of a rhinoceros, shown below, done only from the descriptions of others, without ever having seen such a creature himself.
Interesting stuff, indeed.
So if being in awe of his artistic talents weren’t enough, I happened to come across a bit of information that Durer, among other mathematical recognitions, was also the first to recognize the pentaflake, a mathematical construct that describes the formation of snowflakes.
It goes something like this:
Redtree Times 