Matplotlib – adding subplots to a subplot?

I’m trying to create a figure that consists of a 2×2 grid, where in each quadrant there are 2 vertically stacked subplots (i.e. a 2×1 grid). I can’t seem to figure out how to achieve this, though.

The closest I’ve gotten is using gridspec and some ugly code (see below), but because gridspec.update(hspace=X) changes the spacing for all of the subplots I’m still not where I’d like to be.

Ideally what I want is to, using the picture below as an example, decrease the spacing between the subplots within each quadrant, while increasing the vertical spacing between the top and bottom quadrants (i.e. between 1-3 and 2-4).

Is there a way to do this (with or without using gridspec)? What I originally envisioned is generating each of the sub-subplot grids (i.e. each 2×1 grid) and inserting them into the larger 2×2 grid of subplots, but I haven’t figured out how to add a subplot to a subplot, if there is even a way.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec
plt.figure(figsize=(10, 8))
gs = gridspec.GridSpec(4,2)
gs.update(hspace=0.4)
for i in range(2):
    for j in range(4):
        ax = plt.subplot(gs[j,i])
        ax.spines['top'].set_visible(False)
        ax.spines['right'].set_visible(False)
        plt.tick_params(which='both', top='off', right='off')
        if j % 2 == 0:
            ax.set_title(str(i+j+1))
            ax.plot([1,2,3], [1,2,3])
            ax.spines['bottom'].set_visible(False)
            ax.get_xaxis().set_visible(False)   
        else:
            ax.plot([1,2,3], [3,2,1])

Answer

You can nest your GridSpec using SubplotSpec. The outer grid will be a 2 x 2 and the inner grids will be 2 x 1. The following code should give you the basic idea.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(10, 8))
outer = gridspec.GridSpec(2, 2, wspace=0.2, hspace=0.2)

for i in range(4):
    inner = gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(2, 1,
                    subplot_spec=outer[i], wspace=0.1, hspace=0.1)

    for j in range(2):
        ax = plt.Subplot(fig, inner[j])
        t = ax.text(0.5,0.5, 'outer=%d, inner=%d' % (i, j))
        t.set_ha('center')
        ax.set_xticks([])
        ax.set_yticks([])
        fig.add_subplot(ax)

fig.show()