This website uses cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies on this website to analyze visits and to show you relevant messages on social media. By clicking 'Accept all' you give permission for their placement and for the processing of personal data obtained in this way, as stated in our privacy & cookie statement.

Our privacy & cookie statement:

Italy 1922
5 April 2017

Italy 1922

Maurits Escher has visited Italy several times before, but when he boards the train to Florence on 5 April 1922 things are a bit different. Where he used to travel with his parents, he is now accompanied by his friends Jan van der Does de Willebois, Bas Kist and Jan's sister Alexandra (Lex).

The first pages of Maurits' journal of 1922 with his travel schedule, the mothers' and fathers' advice and a description of the first days in Italy.

The first pages of Maurits' journal of 1922 with his travel schedule, the mothers' and fathers' advice and a description of the first days in Italy.

Worried mothers and fathers wave them goodbye ('Son, don't smoke too much', 'Son, please eat enough', 'Son, don't drink too much') as they board the night train to Basel, before finally arriving in Florence. The group does not remain intact for long, however. Bas and Jan return to the Netherlands first and after visiting Volterra, Poggibonsi and San Gimignano, Lex also leaves Maurits on 2 May. Escher doesn't mind this very much; he continues his travels on his own and visits places like Siena, Assisi and Ravenna. He goes for walks and draws a lot, visits highlights like the Cathedral of Ravenna and the 'wildly undulating hills'* surrounding Urbino and enjoys the sun. The 23-year old is completely at ease. Via Venice, where he visits the Biennale, and Padua he arrives in Milan on 12 June. There he takes the train back to the Netherlands, with a folder with freshly made drawings tucked under his arm. He doesn't stay home for long: on 13 September, he takes the boat for a sea voyage to Spain.

Source

Wim Hazeu, M.C. Escher, Een biografie, Meulenhoff, 1998, page 73

Erik Kersten

Erik Kersten

Editor

Share:

More Escher today

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

In April 1980 Douglas R. Hofstadter wins the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.
A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll. By exploring common themes in the lives and works of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, the book expounds concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence. Gödel, Escher, Bach takes the form of an interweaving of various narratives. The main chapters alternate with dialogues between imaginary characters. The book contains many instances of recursion and self-reference and is full of wordplay and puzzles. It's a very ambitious book that doesn't succeed on all levels, but Hofstadter's optimism and his drive to explore the huge amounts of knowledge available in the world make that you want to read it again and again.
Convex and Concave

Convex and Concave

Convex and Concave (March 1955) has a nightmarish quality: where is the entrance, are we going up or down, are we inside or outside? The construction in the middle, where two perspectives merge, produces a sensation of dizziness.
Nocturnal Rome: Santa Maria del Popolo

Nocturnal Rome: Santa Maria del Popolo

During the first months of 1934 Escher worked on a series of prints of Rome by night.
‘This amazing, beautiful, night-time Rome, whose architecture I love so much more than I do during the day’.