Many of you may, like me, be familiar with the famous image of William Holman Hunt’s depiction of Isabella (Isabella and the Pot of Basil); however, until today, I did not realise that the painting had been inspired by the sixty-three verse romantic poem of love and loss called “Isabella: or, the Pot of Basil” by John Keats and published in 1818 (incidentally, the same year that Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein was published).

In fact, had I read the tragic poem first I might not have decided to use the image, digitally enhanced, as a birthday card for my beautiful daughter-in-law. I simply thought that Jaimy’s head would go delightfully well on the body of Isabella, which it does, as you can see from the photograph below; I had no idea that within the golden pot that Isabella holds so lovingly was the head of her murdered lover covered over with earth and a thriving basil plant (I know, the skulls around the sides of the pot should have been a giveaway). Don’t worry, she didn’t murder him – her nasty brothers saw to the grisly task – the painting is all about her undying love.

So that’s alright then. It had better be… because the card is in the post already. I hope you’d agree that Isabella, with Jaimy’s head, digitally transposed (one might say, beautifully executed), makes for a lovely arty birthday card. Shh! Please don’t tell her the name of the painting or she might search the Internet for interesting facts about the inspiration for Hunt’s masterpiece and Keat’s poem (based on a story from Boccaccio’s Decameron), as I did!