Leonardo's Swans: A Novel | Karen Essex | A haunting evocation of the Renaissance

Leonardo's Swans: A Novel | Karen Essex | History of the art in the Da Vinci Code and the Secret Supper!

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Leonardo's Swans: ...

	Leonardo's Swans: A Novel Karen Essex Broadway, 2007 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 44 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A haunting evocation of the Renaissance

(This review first appeared in the May 2006 issue of The Historical Novels Review, Editor's Choice)

Leonardo da Vinci has become quite popular these days, as has the historical novel featuring an intrepid woman ahead of her time, with an abiding interest in Art. Doubleday is clearly capitalizing on these facts in marketing Karen Essex's novel, LEONARDO'S SWANS. The strategy will undoubtedly sell books, but it does not begin to do justice to Essex's haunting account of the sibling rivalry between two princesses of the Renaissance--Isabella d'Este, Duchess of Mantua, and her younger sister, Beatrice, wife of Il Moro, Duke of Milan. Told from the eyes of both sisters, the novel starts with deceptive superficiality, as the elegantly adept Isabella engages in a competitive battle for supremacy with the wilder and less intellectually accomplished Beatrice. Through a mere matter of poor timing, Beatrice has wed a more powerful and intellectually stimulating man--an event that perplexes Isabella, for how can the vagaries of fortune have allowed someone of Beatrice's pedestrian aspirations to seize the prize that is Milan? Moreover, Milan commands the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, acclaimed court painter and engineer to Il Moro. Determined to outshine her sister, Isabella sets herself to be immortalized by Leonardo's brush, while Beatrice steers a resolute course to wealth and power. But larger political concerns soon overwhelm the oblivious self-aggrandizement and foibles of these Renaissance sisters. Both are tested to their limits and beyond, compelled to discover an inner strength that will ultimately exalt one and destroy the other. Threaded within their story is Leonardo's relentless pursuit for knowledge and reverence for the fragility of life, which elevates him from the ambitions of those he most serve. Despite a sometimes-distracting mix of past and present tense, this is a rare novel that captures an era of unparalleled personality, the like of which shall never be seen again.

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History of the art in the Da Vinci Code and the Secret Supper!

This book was recommended to me by a friend in Italy where it's a runaway bestseller and has been lauded by critics and art historians. Through the story of the brilliant Este princesses whose place in history is all but forgotten, the author manages to bring Leonardo da Vinci and the Italian Renaissance into blazing technicolor. I was fascinated to learn the circumstances under which Leonardo created The Last Supper, The Virgin of the Rocks, The Mona Lisa, and The Lady with an Ermine, and other famous paintings conceived while he was in Milan. Also, it chronicles the rise and fall of some of the gigantic personalities that made the Renaissance what it was. No mysterious codes here, just fabulous, meticulously researched historical fiction that keeps you turning pages.

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Interesting Reading

Leonardo's Swans tells the story of Isabella and Beatrice the D'Este sisters who lived in Rennaisance Italy and interacted with Leonardo Da Vinci and other famous artists. The rivalry between the sisters seems to be mostly in Isabella's mind because her ambitious nature compels her to believe that her younger sister had made the more advantageous marriage. The sisters' interaction with Da Vinci and the story behind some of that artist's greatest works such as "The Last Supper" and "The Mona Lisa" make interesting reading. The story constantly illustrates The obsession of the nobility with collecting art, jewellery, and clothing. Come to think of it, has anything changed in four hundred years? Despite this, the story is well written and quite entertaining.

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A Swan Song for Renaissance Milan

This is a beautiful novel based on the lives of Isabella & Beatrice D'Este during the time of the rise and fall of Beatrice's husband, Ludivico Sforza, "Il Moro", the Duke of Milan, as the most powerful Prince of Italy during the end of the 15th century.

Though the historical characters of Isabella D'Este Gonzaga, Beatrice D'Este Sforza, Ludivico Sforza ("Il Moro"), and Leonardo da Vinci are the main living figures in the story, "La Fortuna" is the actor which sets the course. As La Fortuna would have it, the D'Este sisters are only one year apart in birth but worlds apart when it comes to personal and political ambitions. Both girls have been betrothed to powerful men, but it seems that the pairings would have been more satisfactory if each sister had been betrothed to the others' future husband.

Isabella and Beatrice love each other, but are locked in sibling rivalry over the affections of Beatrice's husband (Il Moro), attentions from gallant courtiers, and acquisitions of gowns, jewels and in particular, art. Il Moro is locked in his own quest for power and wealth. He has brought Leonardo the Magistro from Florence to his court in Milan to produce military machines, decorate living and feasting spaces, and create magnificent pieces of art to adorn his private quarters and the new Dominican church, Santa Maria della Grazie.

Both Il Moro and Isabella D'Este are true students of the Renaissance who understand that one's personal and political power is increased by patronizing great artists to produce magnificent works of beauty. Though Il Moro is married to her sister, he seeks to seduce Isabella, recognizing their similar passions and skills for collecting art and navigating the political landscape of Italy. Their relationship moves past its lustful origins and grows into one of true respect and admiration, despite the obvious flaws they both embody - narcissism not being the least of them.

Meanwhile, Beatrice is forced to reckon with Il Moro's interest in her sister, his mistresses and his political aspirations. She finds a lioness within herself and rises to become Il Moro's lover, political partner and no less a patron of art than he and her sister. Both D'Este sisters and Il Moro try to manipulate Leonardo da Vinci as a pawn to outdo each other and to promote their own personal and political agendas. They find that Leonardo is a formidable intellectual opponent, and in the end, one without rivals. La Fortuna is not so creative as the Magistro - in the end, pride plays a role in the destruction the circumstances of these historical characters in one way or another: heartbreak, remorse, poverty and exile.

I find the history of the Italian Renaissance to be full of incredible stories which are finally being put to paper and told through fictionalized accounts of the historical characters who lived them. What a fascinating time for art, science and politics! Much of the art produced as a result of the patronage of Il Moro, Isabella D'Este, the Medici family, and other Renaissance ruling families of the time has been preserved and can be viewed in the Louvre (you'll find out why it's in France rather than Italy at the end of the story), the Uffizzi in Florence, and other art museums around the world. If you have been fortunate to view these masterpieces in person, the descriptions of Leonardo's paintings and the desire to be imortalized through his eyes and brush will resonate all the more.

To read more about Isabella D'Este Gonzaga's life, the political landscape of Renaissance Italy, and the continued warring over power between the various heads of Europe after this book ends, I highly recommend novel, "The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi" or reading the biography, "Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy" by Sarah Bradford.

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