In his younger years, Escher briefly studied architecture at the insistence of his parents. By then, the artist was much further along in his artistic development, and he had already been approaching architecture with a healthy dose of imagination for many years. In later prints such as Waterfall (1961), Belvedere (1958) and Relativity (1953), the amazement at the impracticability of structures that Escher himself devised is key. A large, impossible building that causes confusion: this sounds like the ideal subject for the printmaker. Escher’s preference for this form of disorder comes as no great surprise. When Escher wrote an analysis about the woodcut Tower of Babel in 1959, his first sentence immediately referred to the confusion of tongues. A fitting name for the chaotic scene that must have taken place on the gigantic structure, and for the far-reaching consequences of this newly created division. The tower itself is named Babel, which can be translated as ‘confusion’. According to the biblical story, this is also the moment when people spread all over the world because of the different languages they speak. He causes the builders to suddenly speak different languages, so that they can no longer work together. God is not pleased with this and wants to punish their hubris. In the story in Genesis 11:1-9, the Babylonians build this tall building that is supposed to reach to the sky. Central to this large, imposing woodcut is a high tower, which we see from an extreme bird’s-eye view. Two years after the Days of Creation series came another biblical print: Tower of Babel. Escher, The Fourth Day of the Creation, woodcut, February 1926 Escher, The Second Day of the Creation (The Division of the Waters), woodcut, December 1925
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