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A pulse-quickening murder mystery set in Renaissance Florence by the renowned author of “HHhH.”
As dawn breaks over the city of Florence on New Year's Day 1557, Jacopo da Pontormo is discovered lying on the floor of a church, stabbed through the heart. Above him are the frescoes he labored over for more than a decade—masterpieces all, rivaling the works of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. When guards search his quarters, they find an obscene painting of Venus and Cupid—with the face of Venus replaced by that of Maria de' Medici, the Duke of Florence's oldest daughter. The city erupts in chaos.
Who could have committed these crimes: murder and lèse-majesté? Giorgio Vasari, the great art historian, is picked to lead the investigation. Letters start to fly back and forth—between Maria and her aunt Catherine de' Medici, the queen of France; between Catherine and the scheming Piero Strozzi; and between Vasari and Michelangelo—carrying news of political plots and speculations about the identity of Pontormo's killer. The truth, when it comes to light, is as shocking as the bold new artworks that have made Florence the red-hot center of European art and intrigue.
Bursting with characters and historical color, Laurent Binet's “Perspective(s)” is a whodunit like no other—a labyrinthine murder mystery that shows us Renaissance Florence as we've never seen it before. This is a dark, dazzling, unforgettable read.
As dawn breaks over the city of Florence on New Year's Day 1557, Jacopo da Pontormo is discovered lying on the floor of a church, stabbed through the heart. Above him are the frescoes he labored over for more than a decade—masterpieces all, rivaling the works of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. When guards search his quarters, they find an obscene painting of Venus and Cupid—with the face of Venus replaced by that of Maria de' Medici, the Duke of Florence's oldest daughter. The city erupts in chaos.
Who could have committed these crimes: murder and lèse-majesté? Giorgio Vasari, the great art historian, is picked to lead the investigation. Letters start to fly back and forth—between Maria and her aunt Catherine de' Medici, the queen of France; between Catherine and the scheming Piero Strozzi; and between Vasari and Michelangelo—carrying news of political plots and speculations about the identity of Pontormo's killer. The truth, when it comes to light, is as shocking as the bold new artworks that have made Florence the red-hot center of European art and intrigue.
Bursting with characters and historical color, Laurent Binet's “Perspective(s)” is a whodunit like no other—a labyrinthine murder mystery that shows us Renaissance Florence as we've never seen it before. This is a dark, dazzling, unforgettable read.
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Reviews
"[An] entertaining whodunnit . . . stuffed with real-life Renaissance artists behaving badly . . . Sam Taylor's translation, superb throughout, reaches its apogee in Cellini's joyously scandalous voice . . . [A] thorough success . . . A dazzling romp."
Steven Poole, The Guardian
"Seriously enjoyable . . . Brightly charismatic . . . From this delectable book's clamor of voices and versions, Mr. Binet arrives at the truth of the crime."
Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"This gossipy, epistolary novel is as full of epic characters as the Sistine Chapel ceiling: naughty Médicis, wine-drunk nuns, proto-Marxist painter's assistants . . . Sinfully fun to read."
Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker