Houses in Rome

In October 1925 the young couple Maurits and Jetta were finally able to start setting up their first home. It was located on the top floor of a house that was still under construction, in a new Roman neighbourhood on the slopes of the Monteverde. The house on Via Alessandro Poerio 100 was beautifully situated with a view of the Tiber valley. The Monte Palatino, one of the seven hills of Rome, lay on the other side of the river, with the quarter Trastevere at its foot. The couple had already bought the house at the end of 1924, but they first had to wait until it was finished, after which it turned out to be too damp. They let it dry all summer and spent those months at the Albergo del Toro in Ravello, the place where they had met.

But quite soon after they had moved into number 100, the couple came to the conclusion that the house was too small. Escher did not have his own studio and another compelling reason was Jetta’s pregnancy. Nearby, at number 94*, they found another home that they bought in June 1926. However, that was not finished yet either, and it took until February 1927 before they could move in. But it was worth the wait. The Eschers — now parents to a son, George — lived from that point onwards in a beautifully situated apartment on the third floor with a private studio for Maurits upstairs. The house was called the ‘Casa dei Quatro Venti’ (House of the Four Winds), because of the winds and storms that blew around the house.**


Escher had designed a lot of the furniture himself, such as the workbench in his studio, as well as the dining room table and chairs. One of his children later recalled that the pieces of furniture were ‘heavy, darkly painted objects’ that his parents had brought along with every move. Escher’s studio is shown on Hand with Reflecting Sphere, which features the work cabinet for prints, the couch with bedspread and cushions and a large leather armchair and bookshelves.***

Escher and Jetta had furnished the house together. In the living room hung a kakemono, a Japanese vertical scroll painting that his father had given him. A samovar, a watercooker given to the couple by Escher’s parents at their wedding, adorned the sideboard. The floors were fitted with majolica tiles featuring a pattern that Escher had designed himself. His studio was decorated with a reminder of Escher’s travels through Tuscany: a statue of St Bernardinus, the saint from Siena. For him to work as efficiently as possible, the couple had devised a special communication system — between the living room and the studio above, there was a tube with a flute on both sides. When dinner was ready and Escher had to come down, Jetta would blow the flute hard. Escher would remove the flute on his side and talk to his wife via the tube. Usually he did not come down immediately when he was working. He continued working on his carving or drawing and Jetta had to wait with the food she had prepared.****

[*]: the number of the house was changed from 94 to 122 around 1929. If Escher talks about 94 and 122, he is referring to the same house.
[**], [***] and [****]: Wim Hazeu, M.C. Escher, Een biografie, Meulenhoff, 1998, page 122