by Sarah Dunant4 Stars
Historical Fiction
Setting: Florence, Italy
403 pages
Published 2003
Ellie's Review
If you liked Pillars of the Earth or The Other Boleyn Girl, you should read this. Set in Florence, Italy in the 1500's, The Birth of Venus is a wonderful historical fiction novel wrapped around the art of the time. I was fascinated by the story plus I loved learning about the art and treatment of women at this time. Just to warn you, this does have some sex scenes.
Book Summary
Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter’s abilities.
I just read this one on vacation and really liked it. I got the next in the series(?) In the Company of the Cortesan. I too was fascinated about the gender roles back then while reading it.
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