Phoenixes and Sphinxes: Renaissance Ladies in Poetry, Paintings, and Life

Love, lust, the painting of the Italian Renaissance, lute music, death and violence, sonnets and poems, prayers and fears – this is what filled the lives of the remarkable women from Sofia Bagdasarova's new book. Some were muses and models for painters, while others wrote their own poems and created paintings. They gaze at us from the canvases of Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Titian, and their barely discernible voices resonate for us thanks to early printed books of the 15th-16th centuries, where their poems were published. The novellas presented in this book reconstruct for us the history of their lives, telling of the inspiration they kindled in men, and the right to creativity and freedom for which these women fought. The text of this unique historical novel features fifteen heroines connected by familial and cultural ties, richly complemented by works of Renaissance art. It is accompanied by a comprehensive art-historical commentary. Thanks to this combination, the characters of the book become even more fascinating, and the history of art in the Renaissance becomes more human and understandable.