Genazzano, Abruzzi 1929

M.C. Escher made this print of Genazzano in Abruzzi with brown ink, hatching a whole town into being. Look at the way he slowly, meditatively, built the world. What was it like for him to sit and look at it? What was it like to begin the mark making, hatching with his pen, finding tonal values through building layers? Escher painstakingly erected forms of buildings, tile by tile, brick by brick. He methodically filled the sky with clouds, and carefully considered the fall of light. I bet Escher thought and thought about the buildings, how they fit together, how they were placed on the land. He probably walked around the town for days. I can almost feel Escher’s presence in the ink, considering space, volume, and form as he put the image down. I bet he felt quite close to the town as he made it.