M.C Esther's Hand With Reflecting Sphere

Hand With Reflecting Sphere created by M.C Escher is debatably his most famous work. The reflective self portrait is a Lithograph, which is actually a print made by drawing on limestone with wax crayons, applying ink onto the stone and printing the image onto paper. Escher is known as a graphic design artist who used wood, lithographs, and sketches to portray his work. Hand With Reflecting Sphere was created in 1935, shortly before leaving Rome after 11 years. He chose Rome for the ability to openly study and practice a new-found art, as opposed to America where his father was adamant on Escher becoming an architect. Architecture did become an influence within his work in a mathematical sense which explores a wide range of mathematical ideas and concepts. As Escher once stated, “For me it remains an open question whether [this work] pertains to the realm of mathematics or to that of art.” Escher was hardly recognized until he was written up in the 1956 issue of Time Magazine for his extraordinary visualization of mathematical principles. From then on, Escher attained a world-wide reputation for his art. 

Hand With Reflecting Sphere is a lithograph of a man (Escher himself) holding a clear crystal ball on his finger tips. The crystal distortedly reflects all of Escher's surroundings in the room, and while he is observing himself, he is also observing everything behind him. By incorporating mathematical concepts into virtually all of his work, especially this one, he takes his own abstract thoughts and produces them into logical, conceptual pieces. The piece is symmetrical, yet focuses on distortion. There are two viewpoints in the lithograph. The viewpoint from Escher to the crystal ball, and the reflection of the crystal ball back at Escher. While both “viewpoints” are being seen by the same man at the same time, they are completely different. One represents reality—The hand holding the ball. The hand is extremely realistic and detailed, with every crease and wrinkle darkened and shaded to look as life-like as possible. The ball is perfectly symmetrical and circular, with light and shadows placed once again to be as realistic as possible. On the inside of the ball, reality is warped. Escher’s is elongated and rounded, the book shelves and chairs are twisted, and the table looks as though it’s on its side. It only makes sense if you see the entire picture, which could speak to Escher’s mindset about the world and how it is perceived.

I originally chose to blog about Hand With Reflecting Sphere because I thought it was cool. I thought it took talent to create, and it looked nice. Now that I know more about Escher and his work, however, it’s must more clear to me why this piece is so famous. Escher was not only creating work out of a new style (lithographs), but also somehow fused math with art in a way that is not cliche, and un-creatively geometrical. Outside of the drawing itself, I find the ambiguous meaning (or meanings) behind Hand With Reflecting Sphere beautiful as well. It alludes to separate worlds with a common ground, which could be interpreted in many different ways. For me, I think of it as the hand and life outside the sphere being reality, and everything in the sphere being what’s going on in Escher’s mind. He is warped in the sphere because everything looks at themselves differently than the way other people look at them. The world around him isn’t perfect because every mind puts its’ own lens on the world around it. I find that intriguing and beautiful.