For my museum report, I visited the Dali Museum location in St. Petersburg, Florida. I chose this museum for my report because I had not visited this museum. I found the portion of the museum based on M.C. Escher’s career fascinating. Even though I did not follow the floor plan according to the chronological order, I found his art to be very interesting and highly satisfying. As seen in his artwork, Escher had an obvious talent in making shapes appear to be three dimensional. I do believe though that my favorite piece featured in the museum is Dream (Mantis Religiosa) by M.C. Escher. This wood engraving was created in the year of 1935. The artwork is 13 by 10 inches.
Escher’s Dream (Mantis Religiosa) depicts a sleeping man with a praying mantis laying on top of him. Many speculations have been made as to why the praying mantis is pictured. Some experts believe that the mantis is only a figment of the man’s imagination and it is a part of his dream. Other experts say that the mantis represents God coming to him in his dream.
In my personal opinion, I believe that Escher used the formal elements: line, space, and shapes. Line is most definitely the common theme in this piece. Escher barely deviates from this pattern. Escher applies space by using
…show more content…
I believe this piece is very simple to deconstruct. Between a depiction of a man sleeping and a title based on dreaming, I feel pretty confident in saying that the piece is being used to represent dreams. Although the reason behind the insect is unclear, people still hypothesize what the purpose of this piece is. As a religious man, it is very possible that Escher wanted to depict god as a physical being perched over his bed. Another hypothesis is that Escher had previously had a dream that looked similar to this and he decided to make an artwork from his personal dreams. Either way, Escher was attempting to interpret this