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''Stars'' is a wood engraving print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher first printed in October 1948, depicting two chameleons in a polyhedral cage floating through space.〔.〕〔.〕 The design for ''Stars'' was likely influenced by Escher's own interest in both geometry and astronomy, by a long history of using geometric forms to model the heavens, and by a drawing style used by Leonardo da Vinci. However, although the compound of three octahedra used for the central cage in ''Stars'' had been studied before in mathematics, it was most likely invented independently for this image by Escher without reference to those studies. Later commentators have interpreted the cage's compound shape as a reference to double and triple stars in astronomy, or to twinned crystals in crystallography. The image contrasts the celestial order of its polyhedral shapes with the more chaotic forms of biology. Prints of ''Stars'' belong to the permanent collections of major museums including the Rijksmuseum and the National Gallery of Canada. Escher used similar compound polyhedral forms in several other images, including ''Crystal'' (1947), ''Study for Stars'' (1948), ''Double Planetoid'' (1949), and ''Waterfall'' (1961). ==Description== The print depicts a hollowed-out compound of three octahedra, a polyhedral compound composed of three regular octahedra, floating in space. Numerous other polyhedra and polyhedral compounds float in the background; the four largest are, on the upper left, the compound of cube and octahedron; on the upper right, the stella octangula; on the lower left, a compound of two cubes; and on the lower right, a solid version of the same octahedron 3-compound. The smaller polyhedra visible within the print also include all of the five Platonic solids and the rhombic dodecahedron.〔〔 Two chameleons are contained within the cage-like shape of the central compound; Escher writes that they were chosen as its inhabitants "because they are able to cling by their legs and tails to the beams of their cage as it swirls through space".〔.〕 The chameleon on the left sticks out his tongue, perhaps in commentary; Coxeter observes that the tongue has an unusual spiral-shaped tip.〔 Although most published copies of ''Stars'' are monochromatic, with white stars and chameleons on a black background, the copy in the National Gallery of Canada is tinted in different shades of turquoise, yellow, green, and pale pink.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stars (M. C. Escher)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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