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Late
last month I wrote a short post about an antiquarian fish-eye view of the city
of Vienna
things (Looking
Straight-on At Things and Looking
Straight-Down on Things) and I can say that they are in general pretty
uncommon–this is the first time though that I’ve noticed a fish-eye
view looking straight down, an image conveying a 360-degree horizon-to-horizon
landscape.”) I’ve not found another
antique view like this, but I did just come across this magnificent work by
M.C. Escher (1989-1972) called
Tetrahedral* Planetoid, produced in 1954 and now living at D.C.’s National
Gallery.
The
view of the planetoid is quite complete, as we can see individual houses and even
some people What I find particularly
amazing, apart from the design of course, is that this meticulous ideal was an engraving
done on wood. It is a glorious accomplishment,
and a joyful optical shock to the system. .
*A tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra) is a polyhedron
composed of four triangular faces, three of which meet at each vertex.