Nocturnal Rome 1934

M.C. Escher made this, what looks like a woodcut, of Nocturnal Rome, and the medium itself—this stark contrast between black and white—really shapes our experience of the piece, right? I imagine Escher really thinking about the contrast between light and dark, night and day. I wonder what it was like for him, walking around Rome, just observing the city. I can imagine him walking around trying to get a feel for the place. Look at the way the lines in the sky and on the buildings are all parallel, which is a great way to express darkness and an absence of light, but then he uses the light to define the statue of the man and the horse. This gives them life. Painters are always in conversation with one another. Escher would have known about the woodcuts of someone like Albrecht Dürer, and I wonder if he would have thought about him when he made this. Artists are always looking at each other's work and thinking. The possibilities of the medium are endless, and it’s always being redefined.