A visit to Escher's world

Today we had breakfast and headed to the Escher in Het Paleis (Escher in the Palace) museum. We stopped at a little book store that we passed yesterday. They had some interesting used books. We also walked on many pedestrian streets with little boutique shops. The weather today was sunny and 60-ish. It was very pleasant and enjoyable to be out and walking. The streets are very nice and many wider streets have grassy areas or flower beds. It is wonderful to see all the daffodils, tulips, and grape hyacinths in bloom. The trees are starting to bud and everything says spring.

The museum opened at 11, but we got there about 30 minutes early. The area where the museum is located is near many embassies, including the US embassy. There was a group of about 50 people protesting in the plaza area about closing the Iranian embassy because of the recent crackdown of civil liberties in Iran. We pondered how a government shutdown might influence our trip. Will the US embassy will close? Will TSA workers not work? Will air traffic controllers not get paid? Will customs agents not check our bags?

The Escher museum is located in the former palace of the queen until around 1948. It was not huge, but 3 floors that were filled with Escher's works and information about Escher. There was also an area dedicated to optical illusions, a theme of several Escher's works. The first floor had early prints and pictures of Escher. Many of the pictures in the museum were copies of the pictures from Escher's photo albums that we saw yesterday at the Gemeentemuseum. There were also some examples of Escher's printmaking instruments and some matrices containing interesting patterns.

The second floor contained many of the print's that are classic Escher. Many contain impossible ideas, such as Reptiles, Convex and Concave, Drawing Hands, Belvedere, Ascending and Descending, and Relativity. Others contain mathematical figures, such as Stars, Moebius Strip II, and Knots. It was quite fascinating to see originals of nearly ever Escher print ever made. The detail and tonalities on the prints is quite amazing.


Another amazing thing to see was all the planning and details required by Escher to carry out a final design. He had notebooks or different was of dividing the plane into identical blocks. While not a mathematician, he created his own notation for these patterns. He created multiple examples of each of these patterns. For example, the pattern shown above (design from April 1959) is characterized by a gyration point of order 3 (near the fins) and a point containing 3 fold kaleidoscope point (heads and tails). This kaleidoscope point is a point where 3 lines having mirror symmetry meet. This is a fourth type of symmetry pattern possible in the plane. Escher's code for this pattern is IIA2 Type 1*; crystallographers classically denote this pattern p31m and a newer mathematical orbifold notation for this pattern is 3*3.

On the top floor of the museum, there were many display associated with optical illusions. There was a physical Penrose triangle model, which is the basis for Escher's Waterfall. There was also an Ames room, which makes objects of the same size seem much different in size. I had fun menacing poor little Amy.


After several hours at the Escher museum, we had a nice lunch at a nearby outdoor cafe. We sat in the sun and watched the bikes and trams go by. Service in Europe is quite different than in the US. Waitstaff generally ignore you until you demand attention. The drink sizes are also tiny. I seem to be dehydrated most of the time. I ordered a diet coke, which is typically 25 cl, or about 8.5 ounces. Luckily the food was good and we had a nice rest for the next museum.


After lunch we went to the Mauritshuis, a former mansion that is now the royal picture gallery. It is in the Binnehof area shown above. The main artists whose work was on display include Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Jan Steen. In one gallery the conservator was working on the restoration of a Jan Steen painting. I was surprised to see so many of the paintings were made on wood panels. Many had amazingly vivid colors. Amy had a great time looking at these 400 year old paintings.

We then went to the Hague's historical museum. It had some interesting displays about the Hague and its growth over time. We learned that the Nazi's destroyed 8000 homes to create a tank barrier during WWII. After the war, a new large road was built along the tank line. Not much lemonade from a sour time in history.

We had a simple dinner and are just hanging out in the hotel tonight. We are catching up on email, blogging, and we had a chance to skype with Hannah. I think tomorrow we are headed to Amsterdam.