The young Maurits Cornelis Escher stopped his architecture studies after a mere one week to
fully devote himself to his graphic art. However, architecture did not wholly disappear from his creative horizon. The virtuoso drawings of ‘impossible’ spaces and structures for which he is so renowned, may be understood as a game with perspective and circulation, a game that cannot be played in the built world. According to some critics Escher was influenced by the Carceri of Piranesi, but despite some potential formal similarities the difference is great.
Piranesi’s theatrical spaces seem suited for more than one drama, while Escher’s images rather lean towards the trompe-l’oeil. The ‘aha’-moment on the part of the viewer who solves the riddle of the impossible drawing is an occasion for joy, comparable to victory in a parlor game. The combination of biscuit tin and spatial manipulation like in science fiction – think
of the film Inception – no doubt testifies to a Dutch sense of humor.
