And the Winners Are...

Amanda from Australia and Marie! Congratulations--your copies of SIGNORA DA VINCI will be on their way as soon as you e-mail me your mailing addresses (see sidebar). Thanks to all who entered the contest, and to Robin Maxwell and her publicity team for supplying the books. I hope everyone who entered will find a way to get hold of the novel. Check back here in a few weeks for my review of SIGNORA DA VINCI and an interview with Robin Maxwell. 

A tally of the comments shows the Last Supper to be readers' favorite Da Vinci work, followed closely by the Mona Lisa. Other favorites include the Benois Madonna, the Lady with the Ermine, the Virgin of the Rocks, the Adoration, the Annunciation, the Belle Ferronnière, the Virgin with the Spindle, and Da Vinci's scientific drawings. I'd have to choose the Virgin and Child with St. Anne myself--the faces are so beautiful! It will be interesting to see which works Robin Maxwell mentions in SIGNORA DA VINCI.

In a happy coincidence, I'm awarding these books on my blogoversary. One year ago today I began posting here at Writing the Renaissance. A great thank you to all my loyal readers who visit often and share their thoughts on the day's topic. It's been great fun getting to know you and sharing my love for the Renaissance. And I hope new visitors who came for the contest liked what they saw and will stick around. 

Here's to the new year--may it be filled with joy, wonderful books, and dreams realized for all! 

Last Chance!

Last call to enter the SIGNORA DA VINCI giveaway contest! Leave a comment here or at the original post telling me which Da Vinci work is your favorite. Contest closes tonight at 11 p.m. EST. I'll draw two winners' names and post them in the morning. Good luck, and thanks to all for participating. 

Book Giveaway: SIGNORA DA VINCI by Robin Maxwell

Exciting news! I am holding the first-ever book giveaway here on Writing the Renaissance.

The book is Robin Maxwell's seventh novel, SIGNORA DA VINCI, just published by New American Library. The back cover promises an enticing read:

I was fifteen years old in 1452 when I bore a bastard child in the tiny village of Vinci. His name was Leonardo, and he was destined to change the world forever.

I suffered much cruelty as an unmarried mother, and had no recourse when they took my boy away from me. I had no rights, no prospects, no future. Everyone believed I was ruined. But no one knew the secrets of my own childhood, nor could they ever have imagined the dangerous and heretical scheme I would devise to protect and watch over my remarkable son as he grew into manhood. Some might call me a liar, since all I describe would be impossible for a woman of my station. But that is where my design unfolds, and I am finally ready to reveal it.

They call me Caterina. And this is my story.

C.W. Gortner and Michelle Moran, both of whom have been interviewed on this blog, provided blurbs for the book. C.W. calls it "an exquisite gem of a novel," while Michelle claims it is "without a doubt the best historical fiction [she has] read all year."

Once I've had a chance to read the book myself, I will post a review and an interview with Ms. Maxwell. You can visit Robin Maxwell's website for more details about SIGNORA DA VINCI and the author's other novels, many of which deal with Tudor subjects.

In the meantime, I have two copies of SIGNORA DA VINCI to give away. To enter your name in the drawing, please leave a comment to this message by 11 pm EST this Friday night telling me what your favorite Da Vinci work is. Click here to see some of his more famous paintings. I will draw two names and post the results by noon on Saturday, January 17. If I draw your name, I will ask you to contact me by email with your snail mail address. Good luck!

Answers to Châteaux Quiz

I'm posting the answers to the Châteaux quiz as a comment to this post, so as not to spoil the quiz for those who haven't taken it yet.

[Pause while you check your answers. Good luck!]

How did you do?

Have you ever visited any châteaux in France? There are hundreds to choose from. I myself have visited Chenonceau and the Louvre off this list. I've also been to Chantilly, Fontainebleau, St.-Germain, Blois, Ecouen, Chambord, and Versailles. Someday I'd love to spend the night in one of the many châteaux that have become hotels. For now, I dream and look at photos of châteaux on the internet--and write novels set in them!

Quiz: Do You Know Your French Châteaux?

Admit it: you've dreamt of living in one, of dancing in the ballroom, dining in the great hall, strolling about the grounds. The chateaux of France evoke all the romance and elegance of the sixteenth century. Can you identify the châteaux on the basis of historical clues? Take this quiz to find out.

1. This château spans the Cher River and was the home of Henri II's mistress Diane de Poitiers.

a. Chambord  

b. Chenonceau  

c. Amboise

2. Leonardo Da Vinci died in a house on the grounds of this château.

a. Amboise  

b. Saint-Germain-en-Laye  

c. Blois

3. Completely destroyed in 1790, this château was built by François I in the Bois de Boulogne after his return from captivity in Spain in 1527. It was nicknamed the "Chateau de Faïence" because all of the exterior walls were covered with majolica and high relief.

a. La Muette  

b. Challau 

c. Madrid

4. This château was the seat of Henry II, Angevin King and King of England, and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine; it was here that Joan of Arc persuaded Charles VII to declare himself king and raise an army to liberate France; in 1562, Henri IV turned it into a state prison.

a. Azay-le-Rideau  

b. Châteaudun  

c. Chinon

5. In the mid-1200's, this château became the home of the royal treasury; at the end of the sixteenth century, Henri IV added a huge addition that was over a quarter of a mile long and a hundred feet wide; now a glass pyramid sits in its central courtyard.

a. the Louvre 

b. Blois 

c. Vincennes

6. Catherine de Medici purchased this castle after the death of her husband Henri II and forced his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, to exchange Chenonceau for it; Benjamin Franklin was a guest there during the 1760's; it was the home of the writer Madame de Stael in the early nineteenth century.

a. Chaumont  

b. Loches  

c. Plessis-lez-Tours

7. This château was built by William the Conqueror in 1080; in 1182, Henry II and his sons Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland held a Christmas celebration there and received more than one thousand knights.

a. Domfront  

b. Biron  

c. Caen

8. This château was the seat of the Counts of Anjou; its chapel housed a splinter of the True Cross; it later became a military academy where the Duke of Wellington, who helped defeat Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo, trained.

a. Indres  

b. Angers 

c. Beaugency

9. This château was built on such a steep promontory that it was said that its founder had the help of the water fairy Mélusine; it was the seat of a family that distinguished itself in the First Crusade and held the crowns of two Crusader kingdoms; it is featured in the miniatures of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berri.

a. Lusignan  

b. Angoulême  

c. Montignac

10. This lavish chateau was built by Louis XIV's finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, who, after hosting an extravagant fete for the king there, was arrested and charged with causing France's financial disorders.

a. Vaux-le-Vicomte 

b. Langeais  

c. Ussé

Check back tomorrow night for the correct answers!

Elephants, Lions and Leopards

We took the kids to the zoo over Christmas break, and as I watched the poor elephant shiver in the fitful January sunshine, I got to thinking how amazing--but certainly not unheard of--it must have been to see such exotic beasts in the sixteenth century. 

With explorers returning from New World explorations and diplomatic and trade channels open to the Middle East and beyond, exotic animals found new homes in Europe. In 1514, King Manuel of Spain gave Pope Leo X a white elephant named Hanno; the beloved animal lived for two years at the papal court and died with the pope at his side. François himself gathered quite a menagerie at the chateau d' Amboise and later at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. According to Eric Baratay and Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier in their fascinating book Zoo: A History of Zoological Gardens in the West (2002), François received "a convoy of beasts and birds on behalf of the 'roy' of Tunis in 1532; lions and tigers brought by the Turkish embassy in 1534; a sheep from the Indies, proferred by a Norman lord in 1538; and two seals sent by Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands, in 1539" (page 22). 

Many of the animals traveled with the court on its perambulations about the kingdom, not without much aggravation for their handlers. In August 1537, the troublesome lion had to be left behind at an inn, along with a payment of 67 livres to compensate the innkeeper for the nasty bite on his leg (R. Knecht, Renaissance Warrior and Patron 132).

François, like many nobles of the time, kept a pet monkey that accompanied him to meetings and meals. The monkey sits on the table at the king's elbow in an anonymous miniature showing the king listening to a scholar reading (featured on the cover of Knecht's book). François is also is purported to have had, on occasion, the lion or a snow leopard lie at the foot of his bed. Quite a way to impress the ladies!

Elephants and other exotic animals feature prominently in Dorothy Dunnett's novel Queen's Play, set at Henri II's court. For further anecdotes about exotic animals in Renaissance Europe, read this recent post at The Raucous Royals.

Bonne année!

It has long been a tradition in France to give gifts on New Year's Day. The word étrennes (as opposed to the more generic cadeaux) refers specifically to these New Year's gifts, now usually given as signs of appreciation to the doorman, the letter carrier, and others who provide service throughout the year.

In the sixteenth century, Christmas was observed as a religious holiday, so gifts were given at the turn of the new year. So popular was the practice that it took on a poetic form. François I's court poet, Clément Marot (1496-1544), sent short, epigrammatic poems to members of the court at the holiday. Although he wrote étrennes throughout his career, in 1541 Marot published a collection of forty-one of them addressed to the ladies of the court. In each poem, he presents a gift to the lady in question.

For example, to Queen Eléonore (François's second wife and sister of his enemy Charles V) he grants accord between her husband and brother:

Au ciel ma Dame je crye,

Et Dieu prie,

Vous faire veoir au printemps

Frere, & mary si contents

Que tout rye.

Madame, I cry to heaven,
And beg God,

That you may see by springtime

Your brother and husband so happy
That everyone laughs.

To the Dauphine, Catherine de Medici, barren for the first decade or so of her marriage, he grants a child:

A Ma Dame la Daulphine

Rien n'assigne:
Elle a ce, qu'il faut avoir,

Mais je la vouldroys bien veoir

En gesine.

To Madame la Daulphine

I prescribe nothing:

She has what she needs,
But I would really like to see her
On the point of giving birth.

To Marguerite de Navarre, the king's sister, who was one of Marot's staunchest supporters:

A la noble Marguerite,

Fleur d'eslite,
Je luy donne aussi grand heur

Que sa grace, & sa grandeur

Le merite.

To the noble Marguerite,

Flower of the elite,
I give the good fortune
That her grace and greatness
Merit.

And to Madame d'Etampes, the king's mistress:

Sans prejudice à personne,

Je vous donne

La pomme d'or de beaulté,

Et de ferme loyaulté
La couronne,

Without wronging anyone,
I give to you

The golden apple of beauty
And the crown
Of firm loyalty. (Referring to the apple Paris bestowed on Venus in the myth and to King François's long affection)

In these brief and often mordant poems, Marot provides us a snapshot of the personalities and the concerns of the French court in 1539 --a literary version, if you will, of the Clouet's chalk portraits. One wonders if the courtiers played guessing games with the étrennes as they did with the portraits.

Though I'm no Marot, I'll follow his lead and wish you all a healthy, happy new year filled with good fortune of every kind!

[Marot's verse quoted from Gérard Defaux's edition, Classiques Garnier (1993). Translations mine.]

Art and Love in Renaissance Italy

I just discovered this exhibition running at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art through February 16: "Art and Love in Renaissance Italy." Here is the description of the exhibit, taken from the Met website:

This exhibition explores the various exceptional objects created to celebrate love and marriage in the Italian Renaissance. The approximately 150 objects, which date from about 1400 to the mid-16th century, range from exquisite examples of maiolica and jewelry given as gifts to the couple, to marriage portraits and paintings that extol sensual love and fecundity, such as the Metropolitan’s Venus and Cupid by the great Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto. The exhibition also includes some of the rarest and most significant pieces of Renaissance glassware, cassone panels, birth trays, and drawings and prints of amorous subjects.

There is a link to view photographs of various objects displayed, as well as links to the Met's excellent essays on Renaissance art topics. What a wonderful exhibit! Anyone had the good fortune to attend?

A Wordy Christmas

Back in May I posted about my trusty Roget's thesaurus, which I relied on all throughout high school, college, and graduate school and which is never far from reach as I write my novels. The pages are dog-eared and the labels on the thumb-index tabs have fallen off; the contents finally separated from the cover (in one bound chunk, thank goodness). I've tried using newer thesauruses, even on-line ones, but I absolutely HATE the alphabetically-ordered versions. I much prefer Roget's original scheme, where words are organized by category. It's so much easier to browse and find exactly what I'm looking for when I can follow trails of related words. I swore I'd never abandon that maroon-covered book, no matter how tattered it became.

Well, my family had other plans.

When my husband asked my daughter what she thought I might like for Christmas, she suggested a new thesaurus. Knowing my tastes in the matter, my husband searched high and low to find one organized by category. None of the brick-and-mortar stores carried it; he had to order it on-line. He warned me not to open the box that would be arriving.

When I found the box from Barnes and Noble on the doorstep a few days before Christmas, I figured it was the thick cookbook I had mentioned a few weeks earlier--the box was the perfect size. I was kind of bummed, thinking I had guessed my present. I was all ready to feign surprise as I opened the wrapped book on Christmas morning...and found I didn't have to pretend! I was, in fact, quite pleased. The 2009 edition of the thesaurus contains many new words added over the last twenty years. The type is easier on my eyes and I don't have to worry about pages detaching from the spine as I turn them! Husband found the perfect present for his geeky wife.

The new thesaurus sits beside me on the desk now when I write. I've retired the old one, but refuse to discard it. Saying goodbye to that old friend--comrade, buddy, companion--would be too painful. A memento of the first half of my writing life, it can rest in peace on my bookshelf, proud of its long service and satisfied with a job well done.

Now, if only my husband could find me book of plot twists... 

Holiday Greetings

The Adoration of the Shepherds (1546)

by Giorgio Vasari (1511-74)

May peace and joy be yours

this season!

Thanks for reading Writing the Renaissance.

Give Yourself a Gift

"The Gift of the Magi," a short story by O. Henry, captures the spirit of Christmas giving in a way no other story does. I first read this story in eighth grade and it has remained with me ever since. If you've never read this short but profound piece, give yourself an early Christmas gift and go read it here. If you have read it, it only gets better on further telling. It's amazing how the author can create such a deep sense of character in such a limited space.

Merry Christmas, a few days early!

Page 56 Meme

Cindy Pon tagged me for the "Page 56 Book Meme." I'm supposed to pick up the nearest book, turn to page 56 and post the fifth sentence and a few after that. I have Vanora Bennett's Portrait of an Unknown Woman (Harper trade paperback edition) at hand. Page 56 falls at the end of a chapter; since there is no fifth sentence, here is the concluding paragraph:

It was only late at night, when I was lying in bed (unable to sleep with excitement, my heart bursting at the memory of all that had happened that day and with all the plans I was making for my future with John), that I heard Elizabeth retching behind the closed door of her room, and the scrape of a chamber pot, and William's nasal whispering. I couldn't hear his words, but his tone was the mix of reassuring and nervous you'd expect from any father-to-be. It began to dawn on me what the reason for her sudden discomfort might have been.

Next, I'm supposed to post from page 56 of my manuscript. I don't have The Measure of Silence on this computer, so I'm going to post from my work in progress. And since I don't have 56 pages yet, here's the opening paragraph of Chapter 2:

Anne d’Heilly de Pisseleu, Madame d’Etampes, perched on the bottom step of the sunken pool. Her flushed skin, still hot to the touch from the steambath she had quit moments before, welcomed the cool caress of the tepid water that closed beneath her chin. Her toes curled in delight as the water buoyed her buttocks and legs off the floor; tipping back her head, she released her arms and floated on the surface of the violet-strewn water. Brightened by weekly applications of honey oil, her hair spread like a sun-spun caul, entangling blossoms and bugs alike in its strands. Except for her youngest attendant Cécile, who strummed the lute with deft fingers in the furthest corner of the room, Anne was alone. Gloriously alone.

Thanks for the chance to play, Cindy! Here are the five people I'm tagging:

Lucy Pick

Sheramy Bundrick

Anita Davison

Elena Maria Vidal

Catherine Delors

Enjoy all the snippets. I hope everyone finds some new books to read!

Mystery Solved

One of my readers was kind enough to identify the cover portrait for me. The painting, Portrait of a Young Girl Holding a Book, was painted in 1545 by the Florentine painter Agnolo di Cosimo, known as Il Bronzino (1503-72). Nicknamed in all likelihood for his dark complexion, Bronzino was the pupil and adopted son of the painter Pontormo. For most of his career Bronzino worked as court painter for Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. He decorated the private chapel of the duke's wife, Eleanor of Toledo, and painted a highly detailed portrait of her and her son in 1550 (below). Bronzino is known for his vivid use of color and analytical detachment from his subjects, as well as the enamel-like finish he gave his works. He painted many religious and allegorical themes (a fine example is An Allegory with Venus and Cupid, below) but is best known for his portraiture. He helped found the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts in 1563. Also a poet, Bronzino wrote and circulated more than 300 poems over the course of his career.

To view more paintings by Bronzino, as well as some by Rosso Fiorentino, one of the characters in my current novel, visit The Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino Room at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

The young woman in the portrait remains unidentified but is probably connected to the Medici court. Many thanks to reader Ody for help in placing the painting!

Virtual Cover

I was goofing around the other day and made myself a cover for The Measure of SIlence. I'd been looking for a sixteenth-century portrait of a woman holding a book and was thrilled to find this one (although I didn't note the artist or title, and now I can't remember where I found it!). Anyway, I proceeded to cut off most of her head--otherwise no one would realize the book is a historical novel. *wink* I don't have an art program on my laptop, so just imagine my name and the title in the blue area in the upper left. Voilà. They say if you want to succeed at something, visualize yourself doing the thing successfully. We'll see how it works!

Literary Stocking Stuffers

There has been much internet talk about buying books as Christmas gifts in order to bolster the publishing industry. Lucy Pick has started a meme describing ten books she's enjoyed this year in order to give people ideas of books they might like to read themselves or buy for another. Here's my contribution to the effort:

Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name: A beautifully written fictional account of the life of an African woman during the colonial era: her abduction by slave traders as a child, her harrowing journey to South Carolina and its indigo plantations, her escape to New York and relocation to Canada, and her eventual return to Africa and work with British abolitionists. I learned many new things about British involvement in both the slave trade and the abolition movement. The colonial timeframe is a nice change from the standard Civil War setting.

Vanora Bennett, Portrait of an Unknown Woman: Although I haven't finished this one yet, I'm finding it an engaging account of the interaction between the painter Hans Holbein and the family of Sir Thomas More, with an intriguing twist on the story of the Princes in the Tower. The depiction of sixteenth century life and thought is quite detailed and accurate.

Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Française: The interrelated stories of a vast cast of characters caught up in the German Occupation of France. Beautifully executed characters detailed from a wryly ironic perspective; the author explores human weakness and the heroic self-sacrifice in ways that makes both extremes sympathetic. 

Alice McDermott, After This: A lyrical account of the inner lives of the members of an Irish Catholic American family during the Vietnam War era. McDermott captures the dynamics of the large Irish Catholic family so perfectly as she charts the course of the various Keane siblings during a turbulent era.

R. J. Knecht, Renaissance Patron and Warrior: The Reign of Francis I:  A thorough account of the life and times of François I, who ruled for thirty-three years as the Renaissance blossomed in France. The author shies from a strictly chronological approach and organizes the material thematically within loose boundary dates. Well chosen photographs and artwork support the text, which introduces many major figures the sixteenth-century Europe. If you've always wondered when or why something happened in Renaissance France, this is the book to start with.

The other books I've loved this year I've already blogged about: Catherine Delors's Mistress of the Revolution, C.W. Gortner's The Last Queen, Michelle Moran's Nefertiti.  If I can remember others (why do I always go blank when someone asks me for book suggestions?) I'll add them to the list. 

Happy book browsing. I hope you find lots to like this season at your neighborhood bookstore!