Maurits Cornelis Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972)

Ascending and Descending, 1960, Lithograph

Look carefully at the monks and follow their path around the stairs. It appears that they are constantly stepping up, or down, depending on which direction you choose to follow, but they still end up exactly where they started.

Escher discovered this idea in an article by L.S. and R. Penrose on visual illusions and impossible objects. Penrose's endless stairway is achieved by having the stair on a horizontal plane, while the supporting structure spirals upward.

The choice of monks to people the impossible structure may be explained by the Dutch term for useless labor, "monk's work".

Anonymous loan