ABLE ARTIST: Accomplished micrographer Matthias Buchinger hid infinitesimally small script in his artwork, such as this self portrait, which contains seven biblical psalms and the Lord’s Prayer in the curls of his hair (inset). WELLCOME IMAGES/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; KINGOFSPADES/WIKIMEDIA COMMONSEighteenth-century German polymath Matthias Buchinger possessed myriad talents, from magic to music to micrography, an art form in which impossibly tiny words are arranged to form larger images, often portraits. Among his most spectacular works is a self-portrait in which his voluminous curls—covering just a few square centimeters on the page—spell out passages from the Bible and the Lord’s Prayer.
Buchinger’s drawings are a feat of precision and dexterity, made all the more noteworthy by the fact that the father of 14 completely lacked hands and feet. He was born in 1674 in Germany with stumps at the ends of his arms and above where his knees would have been.
Ricky Jay, a well known sleight-of-hand artist, has been fascinated with Buchinger for decades. As a boy he read books about the history of magic that included portraits of Buchinger. “I thought it was extraordinary that this fellow did magic,” says Jay.
Buchinger was skilled at the trick called cups and balls, in which a ball is hidden beneath one of three cups. At the finale, Jay says, Buchinger would lift the cups, revealing fruit, ...
