Home > Waterfall (M. C. Escher)

While most two-dimensional art uses relative proportions to create an illusion of depth, Escher here and elsewhere uses conflicting proportions to create the visual paradox. Waterfall has the structure of a Penrose triangle, an impossible object designed independently by Roger Penrose and Oscar Reutersvärd.

The image depicts a village or part of a small city with an elevated aqueduct and waterwheel as the main focus. The aqueduct begins at the waterwheel and flows behind it. The walls of the aqueduct step downward, suggesting that it slopes downhill. The aqueduct turns sharply three times, first to the left, then strait forward and finally to the left again. We are looking down at the scene diagonally, which means that from our perspective the aqueduct appears to be slanted upward. We are also looking across it diagonally from the lower right, which means from our perspective the two left-hand turns are directly in line with each other, while the waterwheel, the forward turn and the end of the aqueduct are all in line. The second left-hand turn is supported by pillars from the first, while the other two corners are supported supported by a tower of pillars that begins at the waterwheel. The water falls of the edge of the aqueduct and over the waterwheel in an infinite cycle. (In his notes on the picture, Escher points out that some water must be periodically added to this apparent perpetual motion machine to compensate for evaporation.) The two support towers continue above the aqueduct and are topped by two compound of three cubes. The one the left is a compound of three cubes. The one the right is a stelated cuboctahedron.

Below the mill is a garden of bizarre, giant plants. This is actually a magnified view of a cluster of moss and lichen which Escher drew in ink as a study in 1942.

The background seems to be an endlessly climbing expanse of terracedA terrace is: In agriculture, a levelled section of a hilly cultivated area, designed to slow or prevent the rapid run-off of irrigation water. See Terrace (agriculture . In gardening, an element where a raised flat paved or gravelled section overlooks a farmland.

1 External links

• Waterfall image in the official M. C. Escher Web site.
• Animated 3D version of Waterfall that includes views from a variety of perspectives.

2 See also

• M. C. Escher
• BelvedereBelvedere is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. Escher which was first printed in May, 1958. It shows a plausible-looking building which on turns out to be impossible. In this print, Escher uses two-dimensional images to depict objects free of the
• Lithography
• PrintmakingPrintmaking is an process where multiple prints of an image can be made by use of matrix on which the image is created. A composition is created on a surface from which a transfer using ink is possible, such as a plate, stone, piece of wood, potato, etc.
• Paradox