Description
Book SynopsisA Guardian Book of the Day A true historical detective story full of insight about how we look at artand the artists and eras that produced it
Trade Review"A fresh account of the Renaissance… [an] elegant exploration" -- Kathryn Hughes - The Guardian
"
Botticelli’s Secret’ brilliantly sets the operatic stage of vibrant, violent Renaissance Florence and brings to life the characters who helped resurrect Botticelli in the 19th and 20th centuries..." -- Max Norman - The Wall Street Journal
"In this wide-ranging history, Luzzi considers why the drawings, which illustrated eighty-eight cantos of Dante’s
Divine Comedy, had fallen into oblivion, and charts both Dante’s and Botticelli’s reputations across the ages." -- New Yorker
"The Italian Renaissance has rarely been so brilliantly examined or put before us in such a delectable style. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves art, who enjoys good storytelling, who is interested in how the human spirit rediscovered itself in such a magnificent and dramatic fashion." -- Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me
"I love everything Joseph Luzzi writes, and this might be his best book yet. As always, it’s full of his intimate and personal insights into the masters and masterpieces of Renaissance Italy, told with his unique blend of scholarship and superb storytelling—all in the service of a wonderful portrait of Florence from Dante to Botticelli and beyond." -- Ross King, author of Leonardo and the Last Supper
