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:

Scarabs
27 January 2018

Scarabs

You have just a few more weeks to see some remarkable wood engravings and woodcuts by Escher up close in The Palace. On 28 February they will be returned to the archive to be replaced by new graphic treasures. Earlier we discussed the wood engraving Grasshopper and the woodcut Tournai Cathedral.

M.C. Escher, Scarabs wood engraving, April 1935

M.C. Escher, Scarabs wood engraving, April 1935

Today we will focus on Scarabs, a wood engraving from April 1935. Scarabs are a subfamily of dung beetle. They collect dung from herbivores, like horses and camels, which they form into balls and lay their eggs in. Scarabs were revered as sacred in Egyptian mythology because Egyptians believed they erupted from these dung balls spontaneously. In hieroglyphs the image of a scarab stands for ‘xpr’ which translates as ‘to come into being’, ‘to become’ or ‘to transform’. In that sense the scarab is a beautiful metaphor for the creative force of the artist. In Escher’s case it is also symbolical for the many transformations in his work. In a prophetic way, even: it would take Escher another two years to create his first Metamorphosis

Erik Kersten

Erik Kersten

Editor

Share:

More Escher today

Poetry Day 2018

Poetry Day 2018

Today is Poetry Day, the start of Poetry Week in the Netherlands. Escher was not a poet, but he had a poetic spirit. He must have had, to create this mind-boggling oeuvre. Moreover, his works lend themselves very well to being used as subject matter for poetry. To mark the occasion of Poetry Day, we are drawing attention to a special publication on Escher, the title page of which comes close to a poem. And if he was not a poet, then he was a troubadour.
Two Intersecting Planes

Two Intersecting Planes

Fishes and birds are Escher’s favorite animals. Or, at least, that is what his work seems to suggest. When he was experimenting with tessellations in the late 1930s, he arrived at these shapes quite soon. They lend themselves very well to the juggling act that is needed for this technique. Which is why they keep popping up in his work. Individually, like in Day and Night, Sun and Moon, Liberation, Fishes, Swans, Depth, Three Worlds and Whirlpools. In combination with other animals, but often also together. Consider in this regard Sky and Water I and II, Metamorphosis II, Predestination and Two Intersecting Planes.
Leaning Tower of Pisa

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Between 26 April and 28 June 1936 Escher takes a round trip by freighter along the shores of Italy and Spain. He also travels inland by train. His wife Jetta accompanies him on a section of this trip. The couple enjoyed themselves immensely. They had moved to Switzerland the year before and were missing Italy terribly. On 13 June Escher arrived in Livorno by freighter. Jetta had travelled back the day before. From his travel journal:
'At 10.10 I journeyed to Pisa by train. From the Piazza Vittorio I took the trolleybus-cum-tram to the station, the same model as I saw running back and forth between Venice Mestre—a very pleasant and fast connection. In Pisa by 10.30 and then on to the Duomo by tram. From the first gallery of the Leaning Tower I did a drawing of the cathedral, on which I worked constantly until 3.30. At the station I ate something hurriedly and took the train back to Livorno at 4.18’