color heliogravure, heavyweight velin paper, 31 x 23 cm (plate imprint), framed in passe - partout 47 x 37 cm, numbered in pencil 19/75, signed from plate under composition "Renoir", dry publisher'sstamp l. d. : letter K surrounded bythe words "EDITION LIMITED CERTIFIED ARTS USA EUROPE SINCE 1998".Original publisher's certificate attached.
Maurits Cornelis Escher is a Dutch printmaker, regarded as the most famous artist in the world of science. Hismathematically-inspired worksare based on the phenomenon of optical illusion, thusdeceiving oursensesandpresenting seeminglyimpossible forms.Heencapsulatedhis artistic andlifecredo in one sentence: "Only thosewhodevotethemselves to the absurdwillachieve theimpossible. Ithinkit's in my basement... I'llgoupstairs right now and check,"thus creating the motto for his most famous,visuallybreakneckgraphics.
In this composition, Escher usestwo-dimensionality to depictobjects free fromthe constraints ofthe three-dimensional world. The painting depicts arectangularthree-storybuilding.The upper two floorsare open on the sides, whilethe upper floor and roofaresupported bypillars.From the viewer's point of view, all the pillars on themiddlefloor are the samesizeboth in front andbehind, but the pillars at thebackaresethigher. The viewer canalsosee fromthe corners ofthe topfloor that it is at a differentanglethan the rest of the structure. All of these elementsallow all of thepillarson themiddlefloor tobe setat right angles,whilethe pillarsatthe frontsupportthe backside ofthe floor, whilethe pillars at thebacksupport thefrontside. This paradoxalso allowsthe ladder toextendfromthe inside of themiddlefloor tothe outsideofthetopfloor.
At the footofthe building standsa manholdinganimpossiblecube.Heappears to be constructing it from a drawing of aNecker cubelyingat hisfeet, with theintersecting linesmarked. The window next toit isclosed with anirongrille,which is geometricallypossiblebut practicallyimpossibleto fit.
The woman climbing the steps of the building is modeled on a drawing from the right panel of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights (a triptych from 1500). This panel is titled Hell;part ofitwas reproduced by Escher as a lithograph in 1935. Theridge in the background ispart ofMountMorrone in Abruzzo. Escherwas on it several times whenhe lived inItaly in the 1920s and1930s.
