Venetian Christmas and the Viscount’s Sketchbook

Architectural Sketch - Viscount Dumaurier

Castle Harbour - Viscount Dumaurier

Masque Ball - Viscount Dumaurier

Performance Artists - Viscount Dumaurier

It was not until we were on the road to Villa Ada in Italy that the Viscount opened his sketchbook and showed me his work. The carriage bumped and swayed over the rutted roads, from recent rain, unseasonal, but welcome. Certainly the Venetians knew how to be festive, and Christmas was a long event, weeks went by with one entertainment after another. We watched the displays of light in the evening sky, the travelling minstrels as they told their tales and enacted their evening performances outdoors.

His leather bound book of parchment paper revealed sketches of architecture, of a castle we passed while approaching the harbour, an image of my fair self at the Venetian Masque Ball, and true to life likenesses of the players, who had amused us in the leafy glade. He was indeed a great artist, and I had much to learn from his eye and pen…

(copyright Imogen Crest 2007.)
(clip art courtesy karenswhimsy online.)