Mathematical Art

The following pictures were drawn by M.C. Escher, an artist celebrated by mathematicians because of his ability to incoropate mathematical ideas and concepts into his work (whether he realized it or not is an entirely different matter). Some of the themes depicted in these images include relativity, reflection, rotation, paradox, symmetry, perspective, angles, spheres and other geometric figures, self-reference, topology, chaos, tessellations, dimension, and the relationship of the part to the whole.

	Another World A room with a dizzying view; three perspectives viewed simultaneously create a sense of alienness.
	Ascending and Descending A paradox; monks always walking up or down yet never really getting anywhere.
	Belvedere Each half of the picture is realizable, yet the halves taken together introduce an architectural paradox.
	Day and Night An illustation of symmetry and complements; indistinguishable figure and ground.
	Three Spheres Yet, if you examine closely enough, you will notice there are no spheres in this picture.
	Hand with Reflecting Sphere Projections onto a sphere; a view which neccessitates that the artist be in the center of his world.
	Drawing Hands A self-referential drawing.
	Mobius Strip II Even though one ant may see another beneath her, they both are on the same side of the strip.
	Order and Chaos Contrast between the states of order and chaos.
	Reptiles Interplay between two and three dimensions. It is also illustrative display of a tesselation of the plane. A "Repeated Tiling" of sorts. Appropriate, isn't it?
	Three Spheres But when reflections, light, and shadow are taken into consideration, how many spheres are there?
	Three Worlds Three distinct yet inseperable pictures in one.
	Waterfall An architectual paradox many times over as well as gravitationally impossible. Though the whole is a paradox, portions of this scene may be realized.

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