Escher and the Droste effect

 

Applying mathematics to Escher's Print Gallery

This website aims to visualize the mathematical structure behind Escher's Print Gallery.

scan All M.C. Escher works © Cordon Art-Baarn-the Netherlands. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This mathematical structure answers some questions about Escher's picture, such as: "what's in the blurry white hole in the middle?" By a five step process a wide variety of different pictures has been made, such as a straight picture, and a picture twisting the other way.

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See our article [PDF] in the Notices of the AMS for the full mathematical story.