Perspectives by Laurent Binet

Book Blurb
Above him, the paintings he laboured over for more than a decade. At his home, a hidden painting scandalously depicting Maria de Medici, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Florence, as a naked Venus. Who is the murderer? Who is behind the painting? As the city erupts in chaos, Giorgio Vasari, the great art historian, is picked to lead the investigation.

Letters fly back and forth carrying news of political plots and speculation about the killer’s identity – between Maria and her aunt Catherine de’ Medici, the queen of France; between Catherine and her scheming agents in Florence; and between Vasari and his friend Michelangelo. Meanwhile, the Pope is banning books and branding works of art immoral. And the truth, when it comes to light, is as shocking as the bold new artworks that have made Florence the red-hot centre of Europe.

My Review
I like to explain why I choose certain books, sometimes it’s title, sometimes genre, sometimes author and with Perspectives it was the book blurb and title. I love my art history and a book set in Florence, but this book has something surprising about it, it’s an epistolary novel. Laurent Binet was in Tuscany and whilst in an antique shop he came across a bundle of letters, a very old bundle of letters. Having paid a lot of money Laurent Binet went through the letters and realised how important they were. In these letters, from the most influential people in Renaissance Florence and beyond is a story about the murder of one ok of Italy’s most famous artists Jacopo do Pontormo, a contempory of Michelangelo.

This is one of the most origional and fascinating books I have read and not just because of it being an epistolary novel. In the letters there is corespondence between all the most influencial player in the Italian Renaissance. There are letters between the legendary artists, Michelangelo who was living in Rome, Vasari known not just for art but also for his book The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects and Bronzino who panted the Medici Court. There are letters from Maria de Medici, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Florence and her aunt Catherine de Medici who at that time was the Queen of France and was trying to use her niece against her brother in her wars against Italy. Ther are so many more characters from the Duke and Duchess of Florence to the apprentice painters and colour mixes working for artists, all have a story to tell and an agenda.

At the heart of this book is the murder of Pontormo, found in a church under the frescoes he was painting for the Medici. It is Vasari who is employed to find the killer and destroy a painting that Pontormo painted of the Duke’s daughter posing as a nude Venus, that others want to undermine the Duke. There are many suspects from nuns, to fellow artists and people who worked at Pontormo as apprentices and colour mixers. But what I found most intriguing was what the letters showed what it was like in sixteenth century Florence. There are powerplays in politics, sacrifices to be made for alliances, the fact that nude paintings were no longer morally acceptable in art, to the extent that the Pope wanted to have Michelangelo’s Sistine Chaple paintings adapted for modesty. There is blackmail, elopement, rebellion, war and murder , and of course the insight into the minds of these wonderful charactres of the Renaissance.

Its a long time since I have read an epistolary novel and at first was overcome with the many characters and their relationships but I soon fell into this book and it’s many layers. I am so passionate about Perspectives, it took me back to university studies, being back in Renaissance Florence with it’s stunning architecture and art, the power the Medici held and the political machinations of the Italian states. This is an ambitious book from Laurent Binet and I have to admit I’m jealous of him finding these letters, they are the type of thing I dream about finding. If you fancy an origional and charming whodunit then I highly recommed this book. Simply stunning!