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

HOUSE OF STAIRS, lithograph, 1951, 47 x 24 cm

Now comes a further development of the concept of relativity that was displayed in the foregoing prints. A playful element is introduced, one which came up for discussion in connection with the regular dividing-up of surfaces, in other words glide reflection. Roughly the whole of the top half of the print is the mirror image of the bottom half. The topmost flight of steps, down which a curl-up is crawling from left to right, is reflected twice over, once in the middle and then again in the lower part. On the stairs in the top right-hand corner, in the same way as is also shown in RELATIVITY, the distinction between ascending and descending is eliminated, for two rows of animals are moving side by side, yet one row is going up and the other down.

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