Castel Sant'Angelo 1934

M.C. Escher made this print of Castel Sant' Angelo with, I'm guessing, a wood block and ink. The whole piece is made of hatching and cross-hatching, like he's mapping out the form with lines. Look at the way he uses the cross-hatching on the main tower – it’s dense, giving it weight, but also a kind of unreal, mathematical feel. The marks feel very deliberate and yet somehow playful. Escher is clearly not trying to hide his process. You can practically feel the tool cutting into the wood. It’s like he’s saying, "Here’s how I make a picture; here's how I make an illusion, here's how I make a world”. Escher’s work, with its impossible spaces and shifting perspectives, reminds me a little of Piranesi. Both artists were fascinated by architecture and the ways we perceive space. But where Piranesi’s etchings are romantic and dramatic, Escher’s have this cool, almost scientific precision. What is so strange about the work is the combination of technical skill and dreamlike imagery. It invites you to consider how we build our realities, one line at a time.