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Butterfly (Emblemata)
24 September 2017

Butterfly (Emblemata)

Due to the latest change of displayed works, a number of works that are part of a series can now be seen in Room 1: nine (of the 25 in total) woodcuts from the Emblemata series Escher produced in 1931. Earlier we showed you Toadstool from this series. Today, we focus our attention on Butterfly. In this woodcut Escher puts a butterfly (a small tortoiseshell, a swallowtail, who knows?) in a richly ornamented palette of flowers and plants. Art historian G.J. Hoogewerff provided these Emblemata with a motto in Latin and a poem in Dutch.

M.C. Escher, XIX, Butterfly, woodcut, between March and June 1931

M.C. Escher, XIX, Butterfly, woodcut, between March and June 1931

In this case:

‘Signum immortalitatis fragile admodum.'

Which translates roughly as:

Erik Kersten

Erik Kersten

Editor

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In September 1941 Escher started on his woodcut Fish, the first work he produced after moving to Baarn. In his diary he wrote about the process:
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