Borgia! .... The cover story

“But Lucrezia, you are a BORGIA!”

Jeremy Irons earwormed his way into my brain as soon as I walked into the extraordinary Borgia apartments in The Vatican.

​Was I still in Italy?  Or had I been transported to Spain? With frescoes of the Borgia bull, these apartments show the Spanish roots of the new Pope at that time, Rodrigo de Borgia, who became Pope Alexander in 1492. 

Apparently, the entire space was created to reflect the pride he felt in his family name, his Spanish origins and the huge ambition that he had for himself and his family, as portrayed by Irons with his inimitable ruthless charm in the brilliant bingeworthy series, The Borgias. 

On this tour, everyone else was looking around at the walls and the ornate gilded stucco frames and frescos, but I was drawn to the floor tiles (imported from Spain), that gave the rooms a completely Spanish look.

​One set of tiles stood out to me - this wonderful diamond repeat that had an incredible pattern and texture.

​While the Borgias were said to be of dubious character and accused of a roll call of crimes during the reign of Pope Alexander - lasciviousness! nepotism! adultery! simony! murder! - least they had good taste in decorating!

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The original image of the floor tiles in the Borgia apartments in Rome.

Stencil reworking of the design

The design process: choosing colour-ways, sampling different colours on different materials