Roman Aqueduct in Segovia

This ancient building was constructed at the order of the Roman Emperor Domitian (81AD – 96AD) and completed in 98 AD. Its purpose was to supply water to the old Segovia, which was regarded as strategically important for controlling the central part of the peninsula.

This Roman Aqueduct is one of the few still standing. We saw a section of a similar construction at Grado in Provence, France, a couple of years ago. However, this one is still complete and fully capable of channelling water between two hills. Therefore, for us, it was a must-see for this Spanish vacation.

Unfortunately, I did not have more than a few minutes to admire the monument due to the nature of the trip. It was during an organized, guided bus tour of three cities near Madrid, planned for 12 hours. I only had the chance to do a pencil sketch and take a few photo references, such as those next.

And the sketch:

Back home last Thursday, I painted a monochromatic study of the composition to better understand the values of those many areas needed to depict and convey my feeling of awe at seeing this aqueduct in its full beauty, as reflected late morning in the full Sun at the beginning of Summer.

I realized the composition’s perspective is a bit off. In a two-point perspective, the angle formed by the Aqueduct where it joins the old Roman wall is too large. It is a straight angle, allowing a vertical composition rather than the horizontal one I originally drew. So I re-drew the composition just to outline the major forms on a larger sheet that I could scale easily for a painting.

Then, I traced the above sketch onto a quarter sheet of Arches paper (130 lb cold-press fine-grain) to add reference marks before painting.