Escher inlaid wood art at Leiden Town Hall
by Arthur
Posted on Saturday, September 9th, 2006 at 9:51 pm CET
Today was Open Monumentendag in the Netherlands, which means that many monuments, otherwise closed to the public, are open for free exploration. We had a walk around our town Leiden today and came across some really nice 1940’s Escher intarsia (a form of wood inlaying) works at the city’s Town Hall.
M. C. Escher (1898–1972) was a Dutch graphic artist known for his often mathematically inspired drawings of impossible constructions and infinite patterns.
In 1940 Escher made five intarsia panels that were placed in the Leiden Town Hall. They are located in rooms not normally open to the public, namely the city mayor’s office and meeting room.
We saw four of the beautiful works: two square works with infinite fish, a clock with birds, and a huge 1940 map (at least two meters across) of the city of Leiden. The map (which even showed the street that our house is on!) contains several planned neighborhoods that were never built. The map shows a canal to the north of the city along a planned industrial area, but the canal was never dug.
Meeting room with Escher clock above door
Close-up of clock above door
Arthur in front of map of Leiden
Detail of map of Leiden
Fish pattern work above door
Today was Open Monumentendag in the Netherlands, which means that many monuments, otherwise closed to the public, are open for free exploration. We had a walk around our town Leiden today and came across some really nice 1940’s Escher intarsia (a form of wood inlaying) works at the city’s Town Hall.
M. C. Escher (1898–1972) was a Dutch graphic artist known for his often mathematically inspired drawings of impossible constructions and infinite patterns.
In 1940 Escher made five intarsia panels that were placed in the Leiden Town Hall. They are located in rooms not normally open to the public, namely the city mayor’s office and meeting room.
We saw four of the beautiful works: two square works with infinite fish, a clock with birds, and a huge 1940 map (at least two meters across) of the city of Leiden. The map (which even showed the street that our house is on!) contains several planned neighborhoods that were never built. The map shows a canal to the north of the city along a planned industrial area, but the canal was never dug.
Meeting room with Escher clock above door
Close-up of clock above door
Arthur in front of map of Leiden
Detail of map of Leiden
Fish pattern work above door
8:34 pm
Beste Arthur,
Bijzondere foto’s zijn dat van het Escher inlegwerk in het Stadhuis van Leiden!
Ik beoefen zelf intarsia als hobby en ben bezig daar een website over te maken.
Is het voor jou bezwaarlijk als ik 1 van de afbeeldingen (de klok) gebruik als illustratie op de pagina met “marquetuers”?
Ik zal verwijzen naar jouw / jullie bLog.
Met vriendelijke groet,
Peter