Caltavuturo in the Madonie Mountains, Sicily 1932

Curator: M.C. Escher created this rather stunning pencil drawing, entitled “Caltavuturo in the Madonie Mountains, Sicily,” in 1932. Editor: It’s amazing, isn't it? So much detail packed into a single sketch. The texture he coaxes out of that pencil, especially in the foreground rock face, it practically leaps off the page. You feel like you could reach out and touch it. Curator: Escher was, of course, most known for his geometric and mathematical impossible constructions. But earlier in his career, he produced very representational landscapes like this one. These works offer some intriguing insights into the foundation of his visual thinking. Editor: Absolutely. Notice the geometric rhythm inherent even in nature, in the layered mountains, in the jagged edges of the rocks. Even the buildings are staggered with almost calculated precision down the hillside. It is like a town organically built upon mathematical principles, long before Escher reimagined those same themes later in his famous tessellations and impossible structures. Curator: Yes, his travels throughout Italy, including his time in Sicily, provided him with a deep understanding of perspective and spatial relationships. The village itself, clinging to the hillside, presents a visual echo of those cliff-faces—reflecting the community's adaption to—even integration with—the unforgiving natural terrain. It's symbiosis embodied in architecture. Editor: And beyond the structural elements, there is an interesting cultural reading. This sketch provides us with a frozen moment in a specific time, presenting Caltavuturo’s enduring presence amidst the evolving narrative of Sicily. Its a portrait not just of a landscape but of an idea of rootedness, where the physical place carries historical and societal meanings. Curator: It makes you think about the psychological aspect of this village, a place perched so precariously between the sky and the earth. A sense of solidity combined with vulnerability comes to my mind. Editor: Indeed, and in appreciating its geometric realism, its visual grounding in reality, perhaps we glimpse the very origins from which his mind so daringly took flight. Curator: That's very well said, indeed. Thank you.