In this state of confusion, no one can continue what they were doing. Two layers down, little men lie on their bellies, looking down from a great height, confused. On the top floor of the tower, the figures stand with their hands spread, confused by what has just happened. This makes it very easy to spot the confusion that exists among the black and white figures. By opting for the extreme bird’s-eye view, we are looking down on the tower from far above. In his print, Escher takes a radically different approach. The Tower of Babel is also commonly depicted from below. In other works of art, such as the famous painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the view of the tower is usually straight on. The architecture of Escher’s version of the tower is not innovative in itself, but with his print he really adds something to a subject often depicted in art history. As a viewer, it doesn’t occur to you that you might not be able to stand on it. The height of the construction makes it an almost impossible building, but it is possible as an image. The Tower of Babel is, as it were, a way station in his fascination with impossible buildings. Escher, Waterfall, lithograph, October 1961 “And I never had any desire to build houses. He reflects on his student days in an interview in 1968: Although this did not turn out to be a great success for him, his fascination with the creation of buildings continues to recur in his work, albeit with more imagination than during his studies. 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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