The artwork titled “Balcony,” created by M.C. Escher in 1945, belongs to the Surrealism movement and falls under the genre of capriccio. This piece is renowned for its intricate and imaginative design, which challenges conventional perspectives and confounds visual sense.
In the artwork, Escher employs a meticulous and sophisticated arrangement of architectural elements to create a surreal and distorted urban landscape. The scene is characterized by an array of buildings and structures that appear to be stacked haphazardly, their forms bending and twisting in impossible ways. A central feature is a large, spherical building that protrudes outward, with a balcony projecting towards the viewer, defying normal architectural principles. The interplay of light and shadow enhances the illusion of depth and dimension, while the detailed textures and patterns add to the complexity of the composition. The entire setting seems to hover above a body of water, with rocky formations providing a base, further contributing to the fantastical and dreamlike quality of the piece.