''Cube with Magic Ribbons'' is a

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

print by the Dutch artist

M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for most of his life neglected in t ...

first printed in 1957. It depicts two interlocking bands wrapped around the frame of a Necker cube. The bands have what Escher called small "nodules" or "buttonlike protuberances" that make use of the dome/crater illusion, an optical illusion characterized by shifting perception of depth from concave to convex depending on direction of light and shadow. Escher's interest in reversible perspectives, as seen in ''Cube with Magic Ribbons'', can also be noted in an earlier work,

Convex and Concave ''Convex and Concave'' is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher, first printed in March 1955. It depicts an ornate architectural structure with many stairs, pillars and other shapes. The relative aspects of the objects in the imag ...

, first printed in 1955. Although the cube framework in ''Cube with Magic Ribbons'' by itself is perfectly possible, the interlocking of the "magical" bands within it is impossible. Escher scholar Bruno Ernst argues that this print is significant for being the first of four Escher drawings to use impossible object. However, there is debate as to whether the figure constitutes a true visual impossibility or is merely ambiguous, as the bands do not have continuous contours that unite their front and back faces, meaning they lose their visible boundaries when they cross over each other.

References

Works by M. C. Escher 1957 prints Impossible objects {{printmaking-stub