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Two hands drawing... which one is drawing the other? Who first grasped the pencil and started to sketch the sleeve from which the other hand emerges?
Despite Escher's assertion that the meaning of a work stops at its mere and simple representation, the peculiarity of his drawings invites us to go beyond them.
Drawing Hands is a lithograph from 1948.
At first glance, it might seem that the right hand is drawing the sleeve of the left... however, upon looking closely, the opposite appears: the left hand with the pencil point on the sleeve of the right hand seems tired of drawing and is thus inclined towards the paper, as if resting. Meanwhile, the right hand, raised above the paper thanks to an incredibly realistic relief effect, is busy drawing the other sleeve. It's noteworthy how the relief effect is rendered by the shading Escher drew on the backs of the hands and fingers. It seems that gradually the hands take volume and simultaneously life from the paper. The sleeves are depicted in two dimensions, as well as part of the wrist; then the hands gain volume and rise above the two-dimensional plane of the paper.
Perhaps these lively hands would then decide to remove the hypothetical pins that hold the paper fixed to the plane, thus escaping from that paper cage... continuing to draw the rest of the body, finishing together the pencil lines on the mouth of the person who would own those hands, and finally giving them voice.
However, reflecting on Escher's work, we must focus our attention on one particular: if the right hand was the first to give life to the left, then what previously gave life to the right? Since it is impossible to determine this, I believe it is better to consider each as a consequence of the other's existence. A sort of infinite cycle as in other works of his, such as "Waterfall," "Reptiles," and "Relativity."
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