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One of his most elaborate transformation pictures, ''Metamorphosis,'' is only nine inches high but over thirteen feet long (and difficult to frame!). A square pattern made from the word "Metamorphose" is transformed successively into a chessboard, lizards, hexagons, a beehive, bees, birds, fish, a rhombic pattern, a town (specifically Atrani, in Italy), then a chessboard with pieces (the rook on the chessboard is also a tower from Atrani's fortifications), and back again to the words "Metamorphose."
One of his most elaborate transformation pictures, ''Metamorphosis,'' is only nine inches high but over thirteen feet long (and difficult to frame!). A square pattern made from the word "Metamorphose" is transformed successively into a chessboard, lizards, hexagons, a beehive, bees, birds, fish, a rhombic pattern, a town (specifically Atrani, in Italy), then a chessboard with pieces (the rook on the chessboard is also a tower from Atrani's fortifications), and back again to the words "Metamorphose."
Some of his graphics are beautifully elaborated "impossible figures." ''Ascending and Descending'' shows a building with an impossible staircase forms a connected rectangle. One row of monklike figures traverses the stair in a clockwise direction, always ascending, yet always returning to the same place, while another row traverses the same stairs in a counterclockwise direction, always descending, yet always returning to the same place.
M. C. Escher's work was popularized in the United States during the late 1950s and early 1960s by Martin Gardner, who wrote a regular column on mathematical recreations for ''Scientific American'' and devoted several columns to explorations of Escher's mathematical themes. The mind-boggling characteristics of his work also appealed to the appreciators of the "psychedelic" in the 1960s, and cheap poster versions of Escher arts found their way to the walls of college dormitory rooms.
==External links==
==External links==
*[http://www.mcescher.com/ The Official M. C. Escher website]
*[http://www.mcescher.com/ The Official M. C. Escher website]