The Constellations of the Northern Sky
A Celestial Connection
I wanted to dedicate a separate section to this personal project, developed as a follow-up to the one before. This work on the Constellations of the Northern Sky springs from a deep passion for stars and astronomy, as well as ancient myths that have illuminated our nights. It's a shame that so many of these fascinating stories have been forgotten and that people are no longer accustomed to looking up at the sky.
For our wedding, we selected 22 constellations from the Northern Sky, excluding the more famous zodiac constellations on the ecliptic to make room for the lesser-known but equally intriguing ones. In the grand Tableau de Mariage, all these constellations were redrawn in vector format with my graphic style, with each star positioned exactly as it is in the sky.
The 22 cards feature, on the front, the drawing of the constellation with its main stars and, on the back, a text that narrates both the myth associated with the constellation and the astrophysical analysis of that portion of the sky. The names of each constellation and the titles were handwritten, then scanned and traced. All texts are the result of extensive and careful research, particularly aided by the book "Notte di Stelle" by Viviano Domenici and Margherita Hack, published by Sperling & Kupfer, which I highly recommend.
The project was a delicate metaphor linking the stars to our guests: we aimed to connect the 22 constellations of our tables with the real stars above us. For this reason, each card with the constellations, placed at the center of the table, and the Tableau de Mariage feature a key characteristic: all the stars were outlined with luminescent paint. Our hope was to see, in the darkness of the night, the constellations in the sky and those "on earth" shine in unison. Unfortunately, the weather conditions were not favorable for fully realizing the project. However, the Tableau is now placed behind our bed, and every night we can enjoy a small but significant piece of the sky within our room.
The 22 cards were later turned into a small gift collection, available in both Italian and English.
- Personal Project2016