How many of you know Piazza Navona? Virtually all of you, as it is one of the most famous and fascinating squares of the city. After taking a walk around this beautiful place that offers new sensations by the hour, we move away and we find ourselves in a small square where we find the church of Santa Maria della Pace, with its wonderful convex facade and the adjoining Bramante cloister, which has been for several years now venue to many interesting art exhibitions well worth seeing, if only for the stunning setting that hosts them.
Over the next few months, from September 22nd to February 22nd you can visit the Bramante Cloister to admire the exhibition of the art of the brilliant Dutch engraver and graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher. Escher had lived in Italy for many years, deeply fascinated and influenced by its natural and architectural landscape. His love for this country defined much of his work, thanks also to his extraordinary power of observation and the ability to capture every little detail and turn it into beauty. We’ll find displayed much of his work created in different villages of southern Italy (mainly Campania, Sicilia and Molise), many in Tuscany (for example “Rooftops of Siena”) and many in Rome, where the artist lived for many years in the district of Monteverde Vecchio (beautiful the work Nocturnal Rome: The Coliseum).
The exhibition begins with Escher’s Italian artistic path and continues along a route through other European countries, the Art Nouveau current, from which the artist was greatly influenced, psychology, the laws of visual perception, geometry, crystallography and mathematics. Thanks also to the multilingual audio guide that you will be given at the entrance, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in the brilliant world of Escher and in its alienating perspectives that question our beliefs. You will linger in fascination looking at his pictures, in search of a meaning and of a correct interpretation, which, actually, does not exist.
M.C. Escher, Relatività, Litografia, 1953.
The exhibition also features a variety of interactive opportunities that allow you to experience first hand Escher ‘s world: you will be able to experience the Gestalt laws of visual perception used by Escher in his works of genius, you will have the chance to walk into a mirror-room where taking photos will transform you in a living protagonist of the Escher experience, as well as several different playful opportunities in which you’ll be able to test yourself with different perspectives, space and form.
A wonderful exhibition that we strongly recommend as a new way to live Rome and to discover a brilliant artist who loved so much the Eternal City and Italy.