Maurits Cornelis Escher or: It's all a question of perspective

Do men really have a better spatial imagination than women?

Men have a better spatial imagination than women? Well, this may really be the case, it is probably dependent on how to define spatial imagination very well and how it is checked its existence.

But even if this assumption is confirmed, this does not mean that women would have to put up with a lack of spatial imagination. Because the assessment of the third dimension can be trained , even by completely unnecessary, in which the brain has to rebuild the required connections completely.

This spatial imagination can of course be trained excellently through art, through three -dimensional art, or a limited three -dimensional art. Because just three -dimensional art would be too easy, a cube in the room is simply there, and it is always three -dimensional, and our brain always perceives it as three -dimensional.

In contrast, a representation that only appears three -dimensional on paper offers completely different options for stimulating the corresponding brain areas.

Art for training the spatial imagination

There are many works of art that stimulate our spatial perception, basically the works of all artists who have discovered and apply the laws of perspective. In any case, the works of most artists who have made their paintings since the beginning of the Renaissance, the first Art Movement of modern times.

Because in the Renaissance the central perspective was discovered, and with this discovery "painter architects" such as Giotto or Filippo Brunelleschi (which is even named as the inventor of perspective) began to create works that represented the traditional motifs of a Christian iconography in a spatially correct architecture background.

Albrecht Dürer also famous for his perspective representation, even in 1525 he published a book with the first summary of the mathematical-geometric process of the central perspective, the “underwery of the measurement with the Zirckel and Richscheyt” , and the majority of the subsequent artists were based on these knowledge.

However, there are artists whose work is particularly suitable if they want to deal with the space and its presentation and perception of this presentation. One of them includes Maurits Cornelis Escher , the extraordinary spatial and very funny and sometimes shak -shaped ironic drawings and graphics, which apparently map the room correctly and sometimes turn it upside down.

Maurits Cornelis Escher is better known as MC Escher , and many people know its twisted drawings, on which impossible stairs and equally unthinkable body parts can be seen, or dubious worlds above and below water surfaces or even houses where there is outside and inside.

The special thing: all of this is presented spatially, and it is shown in a way that what actually seems impossible looks as if it could really happen: the hand can draw itself, the confused knots never end and the stairs can endlessly be done without it going up or down.

With MC Escher, a little more always happens than people can actually imagine, and a little more than is actually possible, but everything looks wonderfully logical from the drawing. In any case, looking at his drawings is a lot of fun, and it also emphasizes to think about how the artist has succeeded in a state of meditation quickly gets into a state of meditation.

Escher's pictures inspire technicians and mathematicians and scientists and away from these all people who do not like kitschy frills, but very precisely drawn images. Incidentally, Escher's pictures also go with every living style, and they give each facility an individual expression, and whoever has hanging Escher on the wall also shows that they can think about the world and maintain an ironic distance from themselves.

How and where optical illusions come about and what it will be used for in the two subsequent videos by Prof. Bernd Lingelbach from the Aalen University of Applied Sciences (TV contribution from the broadcaster ZDFinfo):

MC Escher - an artist with a hesitant start

Mc Escher himself came to his elaborate and astonishing work, with which he was deeply pushed into the hearts of intellectuals in art: he was born in 1898 in Leeuwarden, Dutch, city in and administrative seat of Friesland. The youngest of five sons of a hydraulic engineering engineer proved to be an exceptionally bad student who was allowed to repeat two classes and even produced lousy grades in the school subject.

His talent had probably not yet been recognized, and his architectural studies that started in 1919 ended Escher after a short week. Fortunately, his lecturer Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita had already recognized his extraordinary talent this week, and that de Mesquita had from now on privately in graphic drawing and graphic techniques had a decisive influence on Escher's development, the Mesquita was already a pronounced friend of a good shot irony in the image design.

The Alhambra and Arab ornamentation

Other connoisseurs known, elements from Escher's pictures are based on his occupation with Arabic ornamentation , which he on his travels from 1921 z. B. met in the Alhambra.

The Alhambra in Granada had an incomparable fascination on him. Moorish architecture, shaped by subtle, geometric patterns that reproduce into the infinite, has enchanted it. He is particularly interested in the uniqueness of Islamic art.

Since only a few figurative representations are allowed in Islam, the artisans express their entire talent in organic and geometric patterns. These patterns are often influenced by astronomy and mathematics , areas that were particularly valued by the Arabic architects of the 14th century. It is obvious that the influence on MC Escher was significant.

On his travels, Escher had also met Italy, which he liked so well that he had Niederig with his wife after the wedding in 1924 near Rome, in 1926 the first and 1928 came the second son.

During this time, Escher was already known a little, until 1929 he was able to exhibit five times, in Switzerland and in the Netherlands. And that despite the fact that he had not yet found his characteristic graphic art until late in the 1930s, he mainly painted Mediterranean landscapes at the time.

Escher discovers the perspective and its reversal

The Eschers moved to Switzerland with an emergence of Italian fascism, and a trip with a new visit to the Alhambra should be responsible for the change in Escher's topic in 1936: he began his period of metamorphoses , ornamental representations with the first signs and drawings of fantastic figures .

In 1937 there was another move near Brussels and experiments with surface fillings, in 1940 it went into Baarn in Dutch shortly before the National Socialists invaded, where Escher lived through the war and saved a large part of the work of his Auschwitz concentration camp and murdered there.

After the war, Escher turned to the perspective of the perspective and thus received more and more orders, he sold many of his prints for good payment and, until 1950, also became a sought -after artist.

Now his diverse graphic work was created, Escher was a master of woodcut and wooden stitch and the lithography and dominated a wide range of graphic styles.

Impossible possibilities - optical deception as a perception phenomenon

His works now showed more and more perspective impossibilities, the optical illusion as a phenomenon of perception became his trademark and brought him a similar status to that of a pop star. Escher also liked to deal with phenomena such as furniture straps or fractal, optical distortions and Mirrors . B. a self -portrait of him as Mirrors in a glass ball.

Escher began testing optical illusions in the 1940s by designing figures that could only exist on paper. Because above and below, front and background as well as inside and outside were not clearly assignable. The highlight was that the objects shown appeared normally at first glance, the image structure was logical and of course the perspective.

Escher's tidy and clear drawing style reinforced this impression. The natural environment, such as mountains, palm trees, lines of houses and backyards, as well as the people he put in, contributed to this. It was only when you take a closer look that it became clear that the presentation could not work. It was perspective paradox .

These could be easily designed on paper, but they were impossible as three -dimensional figures in physical reality. They just deceptively deceive reality. Ultimately, it was a game with the way the human brain interpreted the visual information of the eyes.

Perception psychology knew numerous such “mistakes”. The principle was that the human brain learned in the course of life how the lines had to go on paper to give the impression of three -dimensionality - distances, depth of space and size. Therefore, it also tried to construct three -dimensional objects from Escher's drawings, but failed reliably. But that was exactly what made this game.

Although Escher was not the first to use this trick, he drove them to the championship. He also initially designed his “impossible pictures” for his own entertainment. The buildings were often based on the Moorish architecture of the Mediterranean countries, which he had visited as a young man, as well as the landscapes in the background.

Escher becomes a star, despite all the criticism of art

Although Maurits Cornelis Escher was revered by his supporters for his confusions, he always remained a problem for the theorists of art history, because optical illustrations and perspective impossibilities are not classic topics of art, they do not fit in any traditional drawer, so many art critics are still denying the status of an artist .

“Nothing does not do” , Escher would probably say and might have found it much more interesting to be admired by generations of mathematicians and scientists for his exact work and his sensual and sensual approach to mathematical topics and scientific problems.

Mc Escher and the mathematics

The Euclidian geometry, Riemann area, cylindrical perspective and hyperbolic map may sound for some obscurs, but for MC Escher they were the tools of his artistic work. As a passionate supporter of mathematical theories, he considered her as his vocabulary.

Escher's encounter and friendship with the mathematicians Roger Penrose and Harold Coxeter contributed significantly to the development of his knowledge. In this way, he managed to create visionary works that represented fantasy mathematical image projections.

The fascinating objects of the artist also include the "impossible objects". By multiplied by the consideration points or other optical tricks, he created shapes that cannot exist in the real world. The Möbiusband, an endless band without an inside or outside, as well as the Necker cubes, a ambiguous drawing of the edges of a cube, are just two examples.

The Penrose triangle , named after Escher's friend Roger Penrose, is an object that can only exist in two dimensions. In the third dimension, the illusion is maintained by an optical obstacle.

Escher's work is a unique interplay of mathematics and art that still fascinates and inspires today.

Incidentally, Escher claimed to have had no idea about mathematics to the surprise of many. Nevertheless, he was invited to mathematical lectures as to whether he had met these invitations. However, it is known that he gave numerous lectures across Europe about his own work, which were extremely well attended, by the way, in addition to scientists, also by esoterics and adepts in pop culture.

Death and legacy

The artist died in 1972 in Hilversum in Dutch. In 2002 the Escher Museum was opened in the Haag, in which its graphic work is shown, but also many private photos and, above all, (for the curious) work studies, in which an impression of how Escher designed its seemingly impossible geometries.

If you don't know MC Escher very well yet, it is definitely worth taking a closer look at your work, not only to train the spatial imagination, but for a much more obvious reason: Maurits Cornelis Escher is just fun!

Famous works by MC Escher

Mc Escher created 448 prints and over 2,000 drawings and sketches in the course of his work. Within this extensive collection, some works have made a significant contribution to his reputation.

Particularly noteworthy is "The House of Stairs" - a house that makes the viewer dizzy due to its various perspectives and perspectives. The architecture of this house is completely impossible and therefore represents a unique work of art.

Escher's illustrations are not only inspired by mathematical theories, but also influenced by the art of the trompe-l'oeil . This type of images creates an illusion that arises in the eye of the viewer.

Escher's works cross the limits through perspective effects and the use of light and shadow. In hands, the illusion is mainly generated by the fact that the hands protrude from the frame, which previously appeared as a limitation of the artwork.

Works of art by Maurits Cornelis Escher on Pinterest

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Further information

• mcescher.com/ (official homepage of the artist Mc Escher)
• die-scheune.info/ (official homepage by Prof. Bernd Lingelbach)