Sometimes the things in life just sort of click together. Having just come back that month from a very memorable trip to Rome, during which I got engaged no less, I received an email from Culture Trip asking me if I would like to create a series of illustrations capturing the poetic and romantic appeal of -you guessed it- Rome. Wether be it a lucky coincidence, or a perfect alignment of the stars, I wasn't about to let an opportunity like this slide. Trying to contain my obvious excitement about actually get paid to reminisce a bit longer about my experiences in Rome, I politely replied that I accepted the assignment.
Specifically I was asked to create a header and two spot illustrations for an article on why Rome was (and still is) so attractive to romantic English poets like Byron or Keats, in which I was supposed to portray Rome from its most poetic side.
Now normally when I am assigned to illustrate a certain topic, I always start with a little brainstorm and researching session on the matter. In this case, having just so recently been immersed in all things Rome, I already had a pretty good idea on which elements I wanted to include in the illustrations.
I certainly knew wanted to base my main illustration around the Lungotevere, the usually deserted walkway along the Tiber river offering a unique perspective on the otherwise bustling city. If you ask me, any city that has a river flowing through it already has that somewhat melancholic, poetic flair. But honestly, there's really no comparing to experiencing Rome on an early summer morning walking along the Tiber river, occasionally crossing an early jogger or a few sleepy ducks along the banks, undisturbed by the growing unrest of an awakening city above them.
As such I thought it would be interesting to combine the idea of the written poetry by these English poets with the poetic nature of the city. I chose to visualize this by showing a hand writing his poetry with a quill on paper, but having the words morphs into the ripples in the water of the Tiber river. For the text itself I decided on a piece of writing by Lord Byron (one of the many English poets transfixed by Rome's charm) in which he describes Rome as "the city of the soul".
For the setting of the illustration, instead of drawing an existing viewpoint of the Roman cityscape, I decided I'd rather recreate the location from memory, as a visual montage of the memories I had from my many evening walks along the river. So neglecting the actual scale and position of the elements, I decided to draw the St. Peters Basillica, the bridge of angels and the castle Sant'Angelo, the Lungotevere walkway and some beautiful umbrella pines (perhaps my favorite element of the Roman cityscape) framing the image.
Lastly, I decided to continue this theme of combining the act of writing with the actual Roman landscape in the remaining spot illustrations. This also gave me the chance to include one of my favorite locations: the magnificent Parco degli Aquedotti, a peaceful park just outside the city center, where you can stroll along the remains of the ancient aquaduct system, surrounded by nothing but beautiful umbrella pines, cypresses and a strong desire for time to stand still just there and then.
