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La Leyenda Negra (2010)

by Lynn Cullen(Favorite Author)

3.69 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

8466643273 (ISBN13: 9788466643276)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Ediciones B

review 1: The year is 1560 and Sofonisba Anguissola is a gifted female student of the Maestro Michelangelo. Today, Sofi is considered the first renowned female painter of the Renaissance. She has to flee Italy after a near scandal occurs with another art student, Tiberio, and ends up as a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth of Valois, the 14year old bride of King Felipe of Spain. Sofi becomes Elizabeth's close confidante as well as her painting teacher. The story centers around Elizabeth's relationship with her husband, the king's illegitmate half-brother, Don Juan (aptly named), and King Felipe's young son by another marriage, Don Carlos. The story is told through letters and journal entries kept by Sofi, along with 'notes' she kept on painting techniques, herbal remedies, and other not... moreable mentions of the times like: "In Rome, as in Spain, the penalty for sodomy is death, or five years' rowing in the King's galleys, which is the same as death." It is the depths to which Cullen gives you these historical tidbits that makes her books so gratifying.
review 2: So this is the second art historical fiction book I've read this week, after Claude and Camille, and while it was definitely the better of the two, it still did not rise above the three star level. I wish this book were a little artsier and a little less The Other Boleyn Girl light, with less sex. I mean, it was fine, but it was nothing too impressive. I'd learned a bit about Sofonisba while writing my thesis on another pioneering female artist, Sarah Miriam Peale, so I was interested in the subject. Unfortunately, as a protagonist, Sofi, while well meaning, was a little too fidgety and nervous. She was constantly freaking about one thing of another-- not that that isn't realistic, it's just not fun to read. The book was also a bit repetitive, which is never a good thing. Altogether, I can't really recommend it, although if you're really into Renaissance court-life, you might dig it. It's not really art art book thouhgh. less

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