Tessellations - The Beginnings

The Beginnings

The tilings in the Alhambra in Spain were laid out by the Moors in the 14th century. They are made of coloured tiles forming patterns, many truly symmetrical. By our definition, they are not tessellations but they did inspire the young M.C Escher, who copied them into his notebooks and later converted some into true tessellations.

Escher noted that the tilings never included animals or plants. His tessellations hardly ever left them out!

When lecturing later in life, Escher used to ask the audience if they knew of any tessellations done by other artists in the past. He was sent details of a tapestry design by Koloman Moser entitled "Forellenreigen", or trout farm, depicting a fish tessellation completed in 1899 - a year after Escher was born. It also contains a mermaid which might worry some teachers of young children so, although very innocuous, it is on a separate page here



		The Beginnings The tilings in the Alhambra in Spain were laid out by the Moors in the 14th century. They are made of coloured tiles forming patterns, many truly symmetrical. By our definition, they are not tessellations but they did inspire the young M.C Escher, who copied them into his notebooks and later converted some into true tessellations. Escher noted that the tilings never included animals or plants. His tessellations hardly ever left them out! When lecturing later in life, Escher used to ask the audience if they knew of any tessellations done by other artists in the past. He was sent details of a tapestry design by Koloman Moser entitled "Forellenreigen", or trout farm, depicting a fish tessellation completed in 1899 - a year after Escher was born. It also contains a mermaid which might worry some teachers of young children so, although very innocuous, it is on a separate page here				Escher's drawing of Alhambra tiling. By permission Cordon Art - see site information.