Fish-Eye Views, Part II: Escher's Tetrahedral Planetoid

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Late last month I wrote a short post about an antiquarian fish-eye view of the city of Vienna(1529). (“I've paid some attention to antique images that look straight down at things (Looking Straight-on At Things  and  Looking  Straight-Down on Things) and I can say that they are in general pretty uncommon--this is the first time though that I've noticed a fish-eye view looking straight down, an image conveying a 360-degree horizon-to-horizon landscape.”)  I’ve not found another antique view like this, but I did just come across this magnificent work by M.C. Escher  (1989-1972) called Tetrahedral* Planetoid, produced in 1954 and now living at D.C.’s National Gallery. 

The view of the planetoid is quite complete, as we can see individual houses and even some people  What I find particularly amazing, apart from the design of course, is that this meticulous ideal was an engraving done on wood.  It is a glorious accomplishment, and a joyful optical shock to the system.  .

 
*A tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra) is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, three of which meet at each vertex.

Comments

[Jeff]

I also like that within the remarkable symmetry are great differences in details, so that each face is richly different. As in, every maple tree looks the same, only different. It's almost as if the tetrahedron is for adults, the details for kids. Kids love and by nature see all those details. It makes me smile to walk with my granddaughters and discover what they see (that I didn't).

[John Ptak]

That's really good; you've got a very sharp noggin. I agree about the kids: mine have taught me more than I can say.