There are days like that when you feel quite a bit more lucky than usual. I wouldn't tell you how I came across Mr. Confortini's website, it's so convoluted that it wouldn't even make sense. Point is, praise gracious Eriounios and King Wan, for Mr. Confortini may seem to be an obscure artist not particularly renowned outside of certain Italian circles, and yet he deserves more light than he gets, for his work is simply put, truly gorgeous and admirable.
Mr. Confortini, in his mid 50s, specializes in ink drawings of "perspectives and landscapes of cities, cross-sections of buildings, castles and cathedrals" and other maps, all drawn by conforming to antique styles. In my opinion, this noble exercise would find its rightful place into the complete collections of production artworks for real strategy games, for example.
Here is his biography and curriculum vitae:
LORENO CONFORTINI born in Mirandola (Moden) in 1954.
In the early nineteen-eighties began his activity in architectural designs, cartography and perspective views of cities and ancient buildings.
Since 1987 he has collaborated as illustrator and graphic artist with 'Bell'Italia', a monthly magazine published by Giorgio Mondadori (Milan), and with other publishers.
In 1994 he was awarded the prize 'A book for Tourism' by the European Federation of Tourism Press for the volume "Ancient Castles in the St. Marino Republic". This illustrated book, with a foreword written by Jacques Le Goff, was published by the Tourism Office of the St. Marino Republic.
In 2003 he produced, in collaboration with a colleague, the illustrator Francesco Corni, the volume 'Italian Mills', with text by Vittorio Galliazzo, both authors doubling as publishers, which first gave an exhaustive illustration of the various types of water mills in the Italian regions.
In 2005, on the occasion of an exhibition organised at Burg Taufers by the Südtiroler Burgenistitut (The Castle Institute of South Tirol and Austria), he printed the second edition of his catalogue 'Villages, Cities, Castles and Fortresses', a collection of views drawn alla maniera antica.
He has produced large maps of a great number of towns, such as Bologna, Modena, Parma, Brescia, Sabbioneta, and of castles, churches, and medieval villages. Other works have been widely published in special editions on the occasion of cultural events sponsored by public and private institutions.
He lives and works in San Felice sul Panaro, Modena - Italy.
The downside of this, however, is that all images on his website are, unfortunately, all downsized, and finding the publications wherein his arts are fully disclosed is one of the hardest treks ever. You will notice that this exposé of his competences is a transcription of the Italian page. So in order to get the right book references, you'll have to look for the Italian names. And sorry, no ISBN found either.
