Another set of examples comparing two views of the same subject, this time of the interior of the Church Church of the Gesù, the mother church of the Jesuit order and symbol of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Completed in the late 16th century, the Baroque church was designed by several prominent architects, including Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Giacomo della Porta.

The first sketch is from the fall of 2023, while the second is from the summer of 2022, when I found the naves of stone churches to provide comforting respite from the sun and extreme heat.

Having been fortunate to be able to teach in Rome a few times, I have sketched the same sites on multiple occasions. It is interesting how these representations differ, either because of circumstances, such as heat or rain, a change in pen nibs or paper surface, or a slight change in viewpoint. Here, for example, are three drawings of Borromini’s Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza as its spiraling tower is seen rising above its surrounding courtyard and palazzo. I often encountered this view from the Piazza Sant’Eustachio as I walked from the Pantheon on my way to the Campo de’ Fiori.

The first view is my attempt from 2023. The second, from 2013, shows the difficulty I had in showing the relative scale of the church tower relative to its foreground and surroundings—the height of Sant’Ivo appears to be exaggerated.

The third, sketched in the extreme heat of the summer of 2022, is from a closer vantage point, nearer to the famous Sant’Eustachio Caffè.

A sketch done in the early morning while waiting for students to arrive for a tour of the Vittoriano, an important national monument built between 1885 and 1935 to honor Victor Emmanuel II, first king of a unified Italy. Not your usual view of what some call “The Typewriter” or “The Wedding Cake,” taken from a small park looking east across Via del Teatro di Marcello.

Here are a few scenes from a wonderful time we spent in the southwest of Sicily with friends in the fall of 2023. First is the courtyard of a small hotel set beautifully overlooking the Gulf of Noto. The second is the Chiesa di San Giovanni situated high above the town of Modica. And the third is of the western facade of Monreale Cathedral and the bronze doors of Bonano Pisano as seen from the Piazza Guglielmo II. It was too daunting to try to capture the brilliance of the exquisite Byzantine mosaics on the interior.

In 2023, my wife and I, along with friends, embarked on a 4-day trek through the Cotswalds. These two pages document our daily journeys, using a roughly drawn map of the paths we took from village to village as a base for annotating and recording the sights and sounds we experienced along the way.

It was interesting to compare the “quaint” villages and picturesque countryside one sees in the movies and on TV with the real-world counterparts, which took a little bit of the shine off of the former. But, overall, we enjoyed the “charming” places we visited.