Even as a young boy, Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898 - 1972) was thoroughly intrigued by graphic techniques. He studied graphic arts at Haarlem under Jessurun de Mesquita, and in 1922 moved to Italy, where he settled in Rome two years later. From Rome, he traveled widely throughout Italy, France and Spain and, before settling in Holland for good in 1941, Escher worked in Switzerland for two years and in Belgium for five years. During the decade he spent in Italy, the Dutch-born artist explored the many and varied options which different graphic techniques made available, and, more often than not, he would choose his subject matter purely on the strength of the technical challenges it presented to his skills as a draughtsman. Around the time he left Italy, Escher's subject matter underwent a fundamental change. Up until that time, his interest had focused almost exclusively on fully mastering the skills and techniques of his craft, but now he began to give his prime attention to his motifs. "Ideas came into my mind that were quite unrelated to graphic arts."
The pictures that now resulted reflected his fascination with the enigmatic laws governing the world around him: Escher's visual representations expressed the mental images that absorbed him.