Escher did 240+ fairly conventional prints before starting to produce the kind of remarkable works for which he is famous. ‘… Escher dismissed his works before 1935 as of little or no value as they were “for the most part merely practice exercises…” ‘ Of these earlier works, perhaps half of them were accurate representations of existing buildings, in which Escher experimented with perspective and textures. The product towards which Escher was working with these “practice exercises” was the impossible architecture of pieces such as Belvedere, Up and Down, and Waterfall.
Today’s print depicting the biblical story of the Tower of Babel feels like a rare bridging example. The building itself is rendered with textures very similar to those he employed in dozens of prosaic prints of churches, schools, and other buildings. This print, however, is not a static figure of a conventional building. This print clearly tells a story. The perspective is looking down from above onto the very top floor under construction, where numerous figures (both dark and light-skinned) are engaged not in productive work, but mostly in heated conversation. Similar figures are depicted at several levels of the building further down.
The textures and perspective are interesting in and of themselves, and are visually pleasing in a rather low-key way. The action depicted is very much suggesting a story.
What do you think of this print? Do you feel the story? Do the angles and textures please your eye? It’s worth zooming in to see the details as long as the picture remains sharp.
Tower of Babel (woodcut, 1935)
