Dragon (Dutch: Draak) is a wood engraving print created by Dutch artist M. C. Escher in April 1952, depicting a folded paper dragon perched on a pile of crystals.[1] It is part of a sequence of images by Escher depicting objects of ambiguous dimension, including also Three Spheres I, Doric Columns, Drawing Hands and Print Gallery.[2][3]
Escher wrote "this dragon is an obstinate beast, and in spite of his two-dimensions he persists in assuming that he has three". Two slits in the paper from which the dragon is folded open up like kirigami, forming holes that make the dragon's two-dimensional nature apparent. His head and neck pokes through one slit, and the tail through the other, with the head biting the tail in the manner of the ouroboros.[1]
In Gödel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter interprets the dragon's tail-bite as an image of self-reference, and his inability to become truly three-dimensional as a visual metaphor for a lack of transcendence, the inability to "jump out of the system".[4][5] The same image has also been called out in the scientific literature as a warning about what can happen when one attempts to describe four-dimensional space-time using higher dimensions.[6]
A copy of this print is in the collections of U.S. National Gallery of Art[7] and the National Gallery of Canada.[8]
References
- 1 2 Escher, Maurits Cornelis (2000), M. C. Escher: The Graphic Work, Basic Art Series, Taschen, p. vi, ISBN 9783822858646
- ↑ Mortensen, C.; Leishman, S.; Quigley, P.; Helke, T. (October 2013), "How Many Impossible Images Did Escher Produce?", The British Journal of Aesthetics, 53 (4): 425–441, doi:10.1093/aesthj/ayt016
- ↑ Piller, Micky, Dragon, Escher Museum, retrieved 2017-11-25
- ↑ Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1979), "Jumping Up a Dimension", Gödel, Escher, Bach, Basic Books, pp. 473–475, ISBN 0-465-02685-0
- ↑ Merrell, Floyd (1991), Unthinking Thinking: Jorge Luis Borges, Mathematics, and the New Physics, Purdue University Press, p. 72, ISBN 9781557530110
- ↑ Smilga, A. V. (November 2003), "Quantum gravity as Escher's Dragon", Physics of Atomic Nuclei, 66 (11): 2092–2102, arXiv:hep-th/0212033, Bibcode:2003PAN....66.2092S, doi:10.1134/1.1625752
- ↑ "Escher, M.C., Dragon, 1952", Collection, National Gallery of Art, retrieved 2017-11-25
- ↑ "M.C. Escher, Dragon, April 1952", Collection, National Gallery of Canada, retrieved 2017-11-25
|
---|
Works | 1910s |
- Escher's Father
- Bookplate Bastiaan Kist
- Chrysanthemum
- Head of a child
- Skull
- Railway Bridge, Oosterbeek
- Mascot
- Portrait of a Man (I)
- Self-Portrait (I)
- Baby
- Young Thrush
- Bookplate M. C. Escher
- Self-Portrait (II)
- Jug
- The Rag Pickers
- Fiet van Stolk
- Waves
- Self-Portrait (III)
- White Cat (I)
- The Borger Oak
- Portrait
- Seated Man with cat on his lap
- Tree
- Self-Portrait (IV)
- Parrot
- White Cat (II)
- Sea-shell
|
---|
1920s |
- Self Portrait in a Chair
- Rabbits
- Female Nude in a Landscape
- Wild West
- The Fall of Men
- Escher's Father with Magnifying Glass
- Portrait of a Man (II)
- Man Standing
- Seated Old Woman
- Flower
- Seated Female Nude (I)
- Seated Female Nude (II)
- Seated Female Nude (III)
- Roosje Ingen Housz
- Poster
- Plane-filling Motif with Human Figures
- Paradise
- Seated Female Nude (IV)
- Seated Female Nude (V)
- Hand with Fir Cone
- St Francis
- Eight Heads
- Eagle, vignette
- Dolphins
- San Gimignano
- Self-Portrait (V)
- Portrait of Jetta
- Vitorchiano nel Cimino
- The First Day of the Creation
- The Sixth Day of Creation
- The Fall of Man
- Procession in Crypt
- Rome
- Castle in the Air
- Tower of Babel
- Fara San Martino, Abruzzi
- Corte, Corsica
- The Drowned Cathedral
- Infant Arthur Escher
- Self-Portrait (VI)
- Barbarano, Cimino
|
---|
1930s |
- Street in Scanno, Abruzzi
- Castrovalva
- The Bridge
- Fiumara, Calabria
- Tropea, Calabria
- Cloister near Rocca Imperiale, Calabria
- Atrani, Coast of Amalfi
- Covered Alley in Atrani
- Ravello and the Coast of Amalfi
- Coast of Amalfi
- Farmhouse, Ravello
- San Cosimo, Ravello
- Turello, Southern Italy
- Porta Maria dell'Ospidale, Ravello
- Lion of the Fountain in the Piazza at Ravello
- San Michele dei Frisone, Rome
- Mumified Priests in Gangi, Sicily
- Temple of Segeste, Sicily
- Cave Dwellings (near Sperlinga) Sicily
- Palm
- Caltavuturo in the Madonie Mountains Sicily
- Cloister of Monreale Sicily
- Lava Flow of 1928 from Etna Sicily
- Pineta of Calvi, Corsica
- Phosphorescent Sea
- Fireworks
- Old Olive Tree, Corsica
- Nonza, Corsica
- Still Life with Mirror
- Nocturnal Rome: Colonade of St Peter's
- Nocturnal Rome: Santa Maria del Popolo
- Nocturnal Rome: Trajan's Column
- Nocturnal Rome: Basilica of Constantine
- Nocturnal Rome: Castel Sant' Angelo
- Nocturnal Rome: Colosseum
- Aeroplane above Snowy Landscape
- Still Life with Spherical Mirror
- Hand with Reflecting Sphere
- Regular Division of the Plane
- Inside St Peter's
- Portrait of G.A. Escher
- Sengela, Malta
- Hell, copy after Hieronymus Bosch
- Snow
- Prickly Flower
- House in the Lava near Nunziata, Sicily
- Still Life and Street
- Metamorphosis I
- Development I
- Day and Night
- Cycle
- Sky and Water I
- Sky and Water II
- Entrance to the Oude Kerk, Delft
- Development II (I)
- Development II (II)
- Oostpoort, Delft
- Nieuwe Kerk, Delft
- Town Hall, Delft
- Voldersgracht, Delft
|
---|
1940s |
- Metamorphosis II
- Bookplate Dr. P.H.M. Travaglino
- Horse (No. 8)
- Sea Horse (No. 11)
- Lizard (No. 15)
- Eagle (No. 17)
- Two Birds (No. 18)
- Fish (No. 20)
- Clowns (No. 21)
- Bird / Fish (No. 22)
- Lizard (No. 25)
- Three Birds (No. 28)
- Fish
- Plane-filling Motif with Reptiles
- Bird / Fish (No. 34)
- Bird / Fish (No. 34B)
- Dragonfly (No. 38)
- Crab (No. 40)
- Two Fish (No. 41)
- Shells and Starfish (No. 42)
- Bird (No. 44)
- Angel-Devil (No. 45)
- Verbum
- Two Fish (No. 46)
- Frog (No. 51)
- Fish (No. 55)
- Lizard (No. 56)
- Two Fish (No. 57)
- Two Fish (No. 58)
- Two Fish (No. 59)
- Two Lizards (No. 60)
- Reptiles
- Ant
- Blowball (I)
- Blowball (II)
- Encounter
- Two Creatures (No. 61)
- Devil (No. 62)
- Pessimist-Optimist (No. 63)
- Balcony
- Doric Columns
- Three Spheres I
- Diploma Tijdelijke Academie, Eindhoven
- Winged Lion (No. 66)
- Magic Mirror
- Three Spheres II
- Horseman
- Mumified Frog
- Eye
- New Year's greeting-card
- Gallery
- Horseman (No. 67)
- Another World
- Up and Down
- Drawing Hands
- Dewdrop
- Sun and Moon
- Study for Stars
- Stars
- Fish / Duck / Lizard (No. 69)
- Butterfly (No. 70)
- Fish / Boat (No. 72)
- New Year's greeting card
- Plane-filling Motif with Birds
- Regular Division of the Plane with Birds
- Sea-shells
- Fish and Frogs
- Double Planetoid
- Flying Fish (No. 73)
- Horse / Bird (No. 76)
|
---|
1950s |
- Order and Chaos
- Rippled Surface
- Devils (vignette)
- Unicorn (No. 78)
- Flying Fish / Bird (No. 80)
- Predestination
- Plane Filling I
- Curl-up
- House of Stairs
- Bird / Fish (No. 82)
- Thirty-Six Different Motifs (No. 83)
- Bird / Fish (No. 8)
- Two Intersecting Planes
- Puddle
- Dragon
- Gravitation
- Lizard / Fish / Bat (No. 85)
- Two Birds (No. 87)
- Sea Horse (No. 88)
- Concentric Rinds
- Relativity
- Spirals
- Beetle (No. 91)
- Bookplate A.R.A. Wertheim
- Tetrahedral Planetoide
- Fish (No. 93)
- Convex and Concave
- Liberation
- Rind
- Depth
- Three Worlds
- Fish (No. 94)
- Swan (No. 96)
- Swans
- Bond of Union
- Print Gallery
- Division
- Smaller and Smaller
- Lizards (No. 101)
- Cube with Magic Ribbons
- Plane Filling II
- Whirlpools
- Belvedere
- Sphere Surface with Fish
- Sphere Spirals
- Flatworms
- Circle Limit II
- Circle Limit III
- Fishes and Scales
- Lizard (No. 104)
- Pegasus (No. 105)
|
---|
1960s | |
---|
|
---|
Related | |
---|