Below, I pose a series of questions that I have about various aspects of M. C. Escher and his works, the answers to which I have been unable to ascertain. Can anybody throw any light on these?
Q.1
Escher frequently derided his mathematical ability, but beyond vague statements as to his lack of ability, his qualifications are not categorically stated. Is it possible to equate his school-day qualification to a present UK or USA standard?
Q. 2
What books on mathematics did Escher read/own? As such, I am unaware of any specific book. Although a list of the crystallographic journals he read is indeed given in Visions of Symmetry, page 337, there is no equivalent book list, either there, or to the best of my knowledge elsewhere. Was an inventory (personal or otherwise) made of his books?
Q. 3
Occasionally (specifically of drawings 18, 20–22, 25, 56, 59, 63, 66-67, 71–72, 80, 91 and 96), Escher lightly pencilled an ‘X’ next to the periodic drawing number (on the left-hand side). As such, the denoted drawings, as regards their symmetry arrangements and/or motifs, do not appear to be connected in any way as may be supposed by such denotation – therefore, what is its significance?
Possibly related to this is that a similar ‘X’ (albeit circled) appears on two of the drawings (shown in Visions of Symmetry, page 17) he made upon his second visit to the Alhambra in 1936. Presumably, this was added retrospectively, as he would have had no need to mark the drawings in this way (as regards apparent cataloguing purposes) for such ‘early’ work when he was merely copying the tiles. If the 'Alhambra' and subsequent periodic drawings are indeed thus related to each other in this matter, then the relationship is not obvious.
20 March 2026. Upgrade from Classic Sites. The conversion had left the page easily viewable, albeit in one long text box, as well as wide spaces in the text. I now address both. The text was differentiated, whilst the wide space in the text was judged too time-consuming to correct by hand, necessitating a reinstall from the Wayback Machine.
Grammarly flagged, much to my embarrassment, various concerns (red, spelling and grammar errors), (yellow, tone, style, or readability), and blue (clarity and conciseness) that should have been detected at the time, which I now correct the red-flagged concern, pending a later, more in-depth review. (Yellow and blue concerns require a subscription.)
One of the questions was removed, upon a more recent finding that answered it.
Created: 29 March 2010