Snakes (M. C. Escher)
Encyclopedia
Snakes is a woodcut
print by the Dutch
artist M. C. Escher
which was first printed in July 1969.
It depicts a disc made up of interlocking circles which grow progressively smaller towards the center and towards the edge. There are three snakes laced through the edge of the disc.
Snakes has rotational symmetry
of order 3, comprising a single wedge-shaped image which is repeated three times in a circle. This means that it was printed from three blocks which were rotated on a pin to make three impressions each. Close inspection reveals the central mark left by the pin. The image is printed in three colours: green, brown and black. In several earlier works Escher explored the limits of infinitesimal size and infinite number, for example the Circle Limit series, by actually carrying through the rendering of smaller and smaller figures to the smallest possible sizes. By contrast, in Snakes, the infinite diminution of size – and infinite increase in number – is only suggested in the finished work. Nevertheless, the print shows very clearly how this rendering would have been carried out to the limits of human visibility.
This was Escher’s last print.
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
print by the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
artist M. C. Escher
M. C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher , usually referred to as M. C. Escher , was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints...
which was first printed in July 1969.
It depicts a disc made up of interlocking circles which grow progressively smaller towards the center and towards the edge. There are three snakes laced through the edge of the disc.
Snakes has rotational symmetry
Rotational symmetry
Generally speaking, an object with rotational symmetry is an object that looks the same after a certain amount of rotation. An object may have more than one rotational symmetry; for instance, if reflections or turning it over are not counted, the triskelion appearing on the Isle of Man's flag has...
of order 3, comprising a single wedge-shaped image which is repeated three times in a circle. This means that it was printed from three blocks which were rotated on a pin to make three impressions each. Close inspection reveals the central mark left by the pin. The image is printed in three colours: green, brown and black. In several earlier works Escher explored the limits of infinitesimal size and infinite number, for example the Circle Limit series, by actually carrying through the rendering of smaller and smaller figures to the smallest possible sizes. By contrast, in Snakes, the infinite diminution of size – and infinite increase in number – is only suggested in the finished work. Nevertheless, the print shows very clearly how this rendering would have been carried out to the limits of human visibility.
This was Escher’s last print.