Portrait in Black and Gold

By Carol Damioli

One Italian Renaissance painter created stunning portraits of warmth and sensitivity, caught Michelangelo’s favourable attention, served the most powerful monarch of the time, and achieved international renown. But that artist fell into obscurity for one reason – she was a woman. Sofonisba Anguissola’s abilities as a painter, evident while still in her mid-teens, combined with her father’s promotional efforts, made her well known in her native northern Italy. That fame led to a position as a lady-in-waiting to the young wife of King Philip ii of Spain. Portrait in Black and Gold takes the reader through the triumphs and tragedies that Anguissola witnessed at Philip’s dazzling but troubled court. There are gaps in the historical record of Anguissola’s life. It is uncertain whether she actually studied in Rome with Michelangelo. And we know nothing about her mother’s attitude toward her highly unconventional career. But this uncertainty allows the novelist to choose the possibilities that make a stronger, more memorable story, and Portrait in Black and Gold takes full advantage. The novel spans Anguissola’s life all the way to her nineties, when Anthony Van Dyck sought her out in plague-ravaged Sicily. An epilogue explains how and why Anguissola and other women artists were ignored by art historians.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inanna Poetry and Fiction Series
• Release date: Sep 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781771330671

Carol Damioli

Carol Damioli, a native of Michigan, has lived in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo, Manila, Prague, Florence and Munich. She began as a newspaper reporter and worked in international radio and trade magazines. Her time in Florence led to the publication of her first novel, Rogue Angel, a historical novel about the Florentine Renaissance painter Fra Filippo Lippi, which was published in 1994. Italy also provided fodder for her latest novel, Portrait in Black and Gold. She and her husband moved to Toronto in 2007, where she currently lives and works as an editor and writer.

Book preview