Escher and the Alhambra tessellations

A small exhibition, also in the Alhambra, showed some of M C Escher's prints, and a short animation someone had done based on his Metamorphosis series, where a chequerboard turns into birds and fishes, or newts, or frogs. They'd linked them all together and the result was very lively.

See the official websie of his work here. The Metamorphosis prints are at the end of the page in Picture gallery entitled "Recognition and Success 1955 - 1972".

So much of the Moorish pattern making was based on tessellations of multiple shapes. I marvelled at the skill of the craftspeople to keep the repetitions aligned.

I also found this site, http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/minitext/escher/#tess which explains Escher's methodology, and his inspiration from visiting the Alhambra.