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The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher
Introduction
Born in 1898, Mauritis Cornelis Escher was a famous Dutch artist whose art was
famously based on an array of mathematical ideas. His earlier career started with inspiration
from nature, with his drawings referencing insects, landscapes and plants among them liches.He
later jumped in to mathematical forms of art .His main fascination expressed in his art was the
paradox of an impossible figures. From a mathematicians point of view, Eschers work covers
two major areas of mathematics, the geometry of space and the logic of space.
The Artworks Backgrounds
M.C. Escher created many notable mathematical works such as Relativity, Drawing
Hands(1948)Balcony (1945),Star (1948),Ripple Surface (1950),Gravity (1952),Concentric
Rinds(1953)Sphere Surface with Fish(1958) among other well known masterpieces. We will
however concentrate on his two most famous works; Waterfall and Ascending and
Descending.
The Waterfall.
Created in 1961, the lithograph print measuring (38 cm by 30 cm) was one of his
paradoxical elements. The water that is observed at the base of the waterfall runs along the path
of the water before reaching the top part of the waterfall.

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The piece of art represents a small town or village that is set in a high aqueduct with the
waterwheel as the central image. The aqueduct appears as though it is sloping downhill, with

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three turns along the way. Considering the idea, water is supposed to be added to the perpetual
motion machine periodically due to factors of evaporation. The paradox illustrated by Escher in
the art is the water that seems to be flowing uphill.
Escher described his art to represent an illusion that is present in the world. He added to
have based this particular work on the concept of impossible triangle by Roger Penrose.
Ascending and Descending
Completed in March 1960, this piece of art is a representation of a never-ending staircase
that is at the top of a tall building. There is also an appearance of impossible squares at the top of
the roof, while the stairs, which are squared, filled with men who are identically dressed. The
stairs are also referred to as the impossible staircase.
Escher based this art on his reference to a monk job which meant the repetitive action
of doing one activity repeatedly with no visible outcome. This concept was visualized in the
impossible stairs, where the identical men are seen to keep climbing and climbing without
getting any higher. There are however two characters that are not at the lower side of the
building, far from the rest. Escher referred to the duo as the free people.
The Art simply portrayed the societys conformity and their quest to escape the
inescapable thus the impossible stairs that leads them nowhere., The two free people represent
the small group of people that are not confined to the conformities of society and do not simply
follow the crowd, but prefer to be their own person.

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Exposition of the Relevant Math

The Waterfall
The math that Escher applied in the Waterfall was that of the Impossible Triangle. This
triangle is tending to meet at an impossible configuration. The drawing looks very possible by
looking at it but the three-dimensional interpretation is what is impossible to get.

In the figure above, the image shows the top vertices of the triangle. If you observe
closely, lines abbba define the boundary of the limb that is occludes its extension by the
boundary that is o the surface abbcc, that is on the right.T-junctions are used to explain this
triangle. The T-junction is where the lines meet. This junction is formed by the co linearity of the
top of the triangle. The T-junctions represent depth and occlusion, with the top of the T being the
occluding contour.
Ascending and Descending
This piece of Art was the predecessor of The Waterfall, both being based on the
impossible nature of the universe. This particular art focused more on the Pentrose Stairs,
Impossible stairs.
The impossible stairs are a two-dimensional staircase that has four right-angled turns that
are in continuity. This aspect of the stairs is what made the people ascend and descend in a
continuous cycle.

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From the figure above, the staircase has an invisible split at the right stair. The
paradoxical illusion created cannot be really explained based on its functionality.
Manifestation of the Math in the Art
The Waterfall
In the Aetpiece, the two support towers seen in the painting have polyhedral on the top,
which is the first manifestation of the artists mathematical art. The polyhedral on the left is
formed by three cubes while that on the right is a stellation of rhombic dodecahedron; which is a
composed of three non-regular octahedral).
There is also the use of angles that are manifested in the three turns that are aqueduct that
first turns to the left, then straightforward and then to the left agin.The artist uses the dimensions
of diagonals and the infinity of the circle, that is represented by the waterwheel.

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Ascending and Descending

When asked to explain the art, Escher states, a rectangular inner courtyard is bounded by
a building that is roofed in by a never-ending stairway.both directions without meaning
are equally useless.
The mathematical aspect researched later shows that the stairs needed to meet at a
convincing angle.However, the impossible figure seem to create more of a visual paradox. The
question that a viewer is left with is whether the lowest step of the staircase is the one closest.
However, there is always another step below the last step, meaning that there is no such thing as
the lowest step.
The Ascending and Descending artwork is one of those cases where the mystery of the
impossibility makes the situation all the more intriguing. It gets us out of our confined and
limited thinking and takes one to envision a completely new system. This has been termed as
Eschers gift; his ability to make people view things from a different perspective.
Conclusion
Since his death in 1972, more and more of his works have come to life in both Art and the
field of Mathematics. In 1963, Escher is remembered to give a lecture of his main theme, the
impossible and is quoted saying, If you want to express something impossible, you must keep
to certain rules. The element of mystery to which you draw attention should be surrounded and
veiled by quite obvious recognizable commonness. This is true in reference to his work. In
Ascending and Descending, the staircase seemed like a normal structure to the human eye but on
further scrutiny, one realizes the complexity that is underlying.

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Work Cited
Schattschneider, D. The Mathematical Side of M.C. Escher: Notices of the American
Mathematical Society. 2010. Vol 57(6).pp 706-718.