Waterfall (M. C. Escher)

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Waterfall
ArtistM. C. Escher
Year1961
TypeLithograph
Dimensions38 cm × 30 cm (15 in × 12 in)

Waterfall (

lithograph by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher, first printed in October 1961. It shows a perpetual motion machine where water from the base of a waterfall
appears to run downhill along the water path before reaching the top of the waterfall.

While most two-dimensional artists use relative proportions to create an illusion of depth, Escher here and elsewhere uses conflicting proportions to create a visual

watercourse supplying the waterfall (its aqueduct or leat) has the structure of two Penrose triangles. A Penrose triangle is an impossible object designed by Oscar Reutersvärd in 1934, and found independently by Roger Penrose in 1958.[1]

Description

The image depicts a watermill with an elevated

Ascending and Descending (1960), where instead of the flow of water, two lines of monks endlessly march uphill or downhill around the four flights of stairs.[2]

The two support towers continue above the aqueduct and are topped by two compound

polyhedra, revealing Escher's interest in mathematics as an artist. The one on the left is a compound of three cubes. The one on the right is a stellation of a rhombic dodecahedron (or a compound of three non-regular octahedra) and is known as Escher's solid
.

Below the mill is a garden of bizarre, giant plants. This is a magnified view of a cluster of moss and lichen that Escher drew in ink as a study in 1942.[3]

The background seems to be a climbing expanse of

terraced
farmland.

See also

  • First stellation of rhombic dodecahedron
  • Monument Valley, a puzzle game featuring an Escher-like waterfall and similar impossible structures

References

  1. PMID 13536303
    .
  2. ^ Schattschneider, Doris (2010). "The Mathematical Side of M. C. Escher" (PDF). Notices of the AMS. 57 (6). American Mathematical Society: 706–718.
  3. ^ Locher, J. L. (1971). The World of M. C. Escher. Abrams. p. 146.

External links

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