On 22 April 1932 Maurits Escher leaves for Italy, together with his friend and painter Giuseppe Haas-Triverio. Their destination: Sicily. In Gangi, the duo is approached by a couple of street urchins, who ask them if they would like to see any dead priests. *
M.C. Escher, gemummificeerde priesters in Gangi, Sicilië, litho, juni 1932
A large key was produced and, surrounded by a gang of shouting boys, Maurits and Giuseppe descend into the crypt of the Madre Church. Almost all the walls are pockmarked by rows of niches containing mummies. Escher took some photos and created this lithograph as soon as he got back home.
Page from Escher’s photo album from 1932, with a note about the approx. 100 mummified priests in the catacombs of the Madre church in Gangi, 12 May 1932
Giuseppe Haas-Triverio, surrounded by street urchins in Gangi
Some of the mummified priests
Source
[*] M.C. Escher, His Life and Complete Graphic Work, edited by J.L. Locher, Abradale Press, 1982, page 36
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