“Metamorphosis II” by Maurits Cornelis Escher

All M.C. Escher works (c) Cordon Art B.V.-Baarn- the Netherlands.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Between 1938 and 1940 Escher created a thirteen foot “woodcut strip” called “Metamorphosis II” which shows a gradual progression of transformation. The woodcut was in black, green, and brown, printed from twenty-three blocks on three combined sheets. The word “metamorphose” becomes a springboard for the images. Escher describes the following: “Placed horizontally and vertically in the plane, with the letters o and m as points of intersection the words are gradually transformed into a mosaic of black and white squares which in turn develop into reptiles. Now the rhythm changes...by and by each each figure simplifies into a regular hexagon. At this point an association of ideas occurs: hexagons are reminiscent of the cells of a honeycomb, and no sooner has this thought occurred than a bee larva begins to stir in every cell... and so forth, continuing with images of birds, fish and even a city, and then back to abstract shapes and letters.”

For More Information

M.C. Escher - The official M.C. Escher homepage. An online shop with a lot of articles round about Escher is included.

The Wikipedia article on the subject: “M.C. Escher”

“Escher in Het Paleis” - the Escher museum