View source for Relativity (M. C. Escher)

{{short description|Print by M. C. Escher}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file      = Escher's_Relativity.jpg
| title           = Relativity
| artist          = [[M. C. Escher]]
| completion_date = December 1953
| type            = [[Lithography|Lithograph]]
| height_metric   = 27.7
| width_metric    = 29.2
| metric_unit     = cm
}}
'''''Relativity''''' is a [[Lithography|lithograph]] print by the Dutch artist [[M. C. Escher]], first printed in December 1953. The first version of this work was a [[woodcut]] made earlier that same year.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.escherinhetpaleis.nl/showpiece/relativity/?lang=en|title=Relativity|website=Escher in het Paleis|language=en-US|access-date=2021-10-22}}</ref>

It depicts a world in which the normal laws of [[gravity]] do not apply. The architectural structure seems to be the centre of an idyllic community, with most of its inhabitants casually going about their ordinary business, such as dining. There are windows and doorways leading to park-like outdoor settings. All of the figures are dressed in identical attire and have featureless bulb-shaped heads. Identical characters such as these can be found in many other Escher works. 

In the world of ''Relativity'', there are three sources of gravity, each being [[orthogonal]] to the two others. Each inhabitant lives in one of the [[gravity well]]s, where normal physical laws apply. There are sixteen characters, spread between each gravity source, six in one and five in each of the other two. The apparent confusion of the lithograph print comes from the fact that the three gravity sources are depicted in the same space.

The structure has seven stairways, and each stairway can be used by people who belong to two different gravity sources. This creates interesting phenomena, such as in the top stairway, where two inhabitants use the same stairway in the same direction and on the same side, but each using a different face of each step; thus, one descends the stairway as the other climbs it, even while moving in the same direction nearly side by side. In the other stairways, inhabitants are depicted as climbing the stairways upside-down, but based on their own gravity source, they are climbing normally.

Each of the three parks belongs to one of the gravity wells.  All but one of the doors seem to lead to basements below the parks. Though [[Metaphysics|metaphysically]] possible, such basements are unusual and add to the [[Surrealism|surreal]] effect of the picture.

==In popular culture==
{{Main| M. C. Escher in popular culture}}
''Relativity'' is one of Escher's most popular works,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://moa.byu.edu/m-c-eschers-relativity/|title=M.C. Escher's "Relativity"|website=Brigham Young University - Museum of Art|language=en-US|access-date=2021-10-22}}</ref> and has been used in a [[M. C. Escher in popular culture#References to Relativity|variety of ways]].

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{M. C. Escher|state=expanded}}
{{Mathematical art|state=expanded}}

[[Category:1953 prints]]
[[Category:Mathematical artworks]]
[[Category:Works by M. C. Escher]]