Color Song (A Passion Blue Novel) (38 page)

Rediscovering the Gamma Master:

The Art Sensation of the Decade

March 15 (New York)—One of the most talked-about exhibits of the past decade opened today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Gathering together all twenty-four known paintings by the sixteenth-century artist known only as the Gamma Master—so-called for his habit of signing his paintings with the Greek letter gamma—the exhibit is the most comprehensive ever mounted of the work of this mysterious Renaissance artist.

Celebrated as a genius of color, especially the brilliant, glowing blue that is unique to his work, the Gamma Master is considered by many experts to be the equal of his more famous and much more prolific contemporary Titian. However, beyond the fact that the Master lived and worked in Venice during the first part of the sixteenth century, almost nothing has been discovered about his life, not even his true name.

Until four years ago, that is, when a Venetian estate sale yielded an astonishing find: a hitherto unknown work by the Master. Rolled up with several canvases by minor painters
of the same period, the work’s true provenance might never have been recognized had it not been for the sharp eye of art appraiser Fernando Foscari. Struck by similarities to the Master’s style, Foscari bought the painting himself and subjected it to close analysis. In the process, the Master’s signature was uncovered.

Far more sensational than the discovery of an unknown work by a significant Renaissance artist, however, is the work’s subject: the Gamma Master himself—or, revising centuries of speculation about the Master’s identity, the Master
herself.
For this work, a self-portrait, reveals that the Gamma Master was, in fact, a woman.

Only a handful of female painters of the Renaissance and Baroque period are known. While there has been reassessment of their work in recent years, most are regarded as minor artists. Whether their limitations sprang more from limited talent or from the restrictions placed on female painters of the time, is a matter of debate among scholars of art history. What’s not in doubt is that no female artist of the period ever achieved the celebrity of the Gamma Master.

Now completely cleaned and restored, the portrait depicts a handsome, dark-haired woman of middle years seated before windows that open on a Venetian cityscape. She wears an elaborate gown in the luminous, intense shade of blue for which the Master is known, and in her hands she holds a book, turned toward the viewer. On the left page is written
Ego sum
(Latin for “I am”), and on the right page is the Greek letter gamma, the Master’s famous signature. That signature is repeated in the painting’s upper right-hand corner, along with the date, 1510.

“It’s as if she’s saying, ‘Here I am; make of me what you will,’ ” says art expert Elizabeth Pratt, author of the book
Hidden Workshops: Female Painters of the Renaissance.
“She wanted us to know her; everything in this painting is a clue. The objects on the table in the foreground—the horoscope, the necklace with the blue stone, the faces in the portrait sketches, the brushes and other painter’s tools—all represent people and things that were significant to her. The well-appointed room suggests she had wealth. The white cloth beneath her foot may be a nun’s veil, signifying that she left Holy Orders or was forced to take them against her will. It’s also interesting to see that she wears no wedding ring. All that’s lacking is her name. We know her face now, but we still don’t know her name.”

Asked why the Master might have wanted to conceal her name, Pratt speculates: “Perhaps to be taken seriously. Some female artists of the time did win recognition for their work, but many were forgotten soon after their deaths, and rediscovered only recently. The Master surely wanted her paintings to live after her; perhaps she knew that wouldn’t happen if she was remembered as a woman. Though if that’s so, the self-portrait suggests that she might have had second thoughts.”

While a reassessment of the Master’s work is already under way, it’s to be hoped, in today’s changed cultural context, that her reputation will only be enhanced by the revelation of her self-portrait.

The exhibit remains in New York until July, after which it travels on to Washington, Houston, and Los Angeles.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Every character in this book is a product of my imagination (including art expert Elizabeth Pratt). The one exception is Giovanni Bellini. Bellini was one of the greatest painters of early Renaissance Venice; over the course of his long career, he produced many wonderful paintings and altarpieces, including the famous altarpiece that Giulia visits in the church of San Giobbe (the altarpiece now resides in the Accademia in Venice). While I hope I haven’t done him a disservice by making him skeptical of Giulia’s artistry, that attitude would have been far more typical of the time than Ferraldi’s.

Most of the locations in the book are real, including the great market square in Padua; and in Venice, the Campo and Salizzada San Lio, the Calle del Fruttariol, and the Rio dei
Miracoli. I’ve invented Ferraldi’s and Sofia’s houses, however; and the Convent of Santa Marta is also my own creation.

I visited Venice years ago, and it made an indelible impression on me. Much of what Giulia sees and feels reflects my own memories: the maze of canals and streets and squares, the breathtaking palazzi, the incredible vista of the Piazza San Marco, the sense of a city that exists in defiance of nature. And, of course, how easy it is to get lost if you go about on foot.

Venice is one of the most photographed and written-about cities in the world, and I found many books to assist me in my research. Two of the most helpful were the English edition of Umberto Franzoi’s
The Grand Canal
, a photographic and historic journey down the entire length of the Grand Canal—much of which still looks as it did in Giulia’s day—and Patricia Fortini Brown’s
Private Lives in Renaissance Venice
, which gave me many fascinating details of the lives and lifestyles of wealthy Venetians.

I also relied heavily on the amazing map of the city created by painter and printmaker Jacopo de’ Barbari. Published in 1500, it shows every street, canal, campo, and piazza in fifteenth-century Venice, and is so detailed that you can actually count the windows and the chimney pots of the houses. It helped me—and Giulia—find our way around the city, which in 1489 was both very similar to and quite different from Venice today. Barbari’s map can be seen online at http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/venice/barbari_full_zoom.html, with a handy feature that lets you zoom in close and move around.

The recipe for Passion blue is based on instructions for making ultramarine pigment in Cennino Cennini’s
Il libro del’arte
, a “how-to” book on the painter’s craft written in the fourteenth century. Made from lapis lazuli—which was quite literally more valuable than gold—ultramarine was the
costliest and rarest of all the paints in a painter’s palette. I’ve added a few ingredients to Cennini’s formula to help explain Passion blue’s transparency and luster, including ground glass, which recent research has shown was indeed used by Venetian painters to increase their paints’ light-reflecting qualities.

Last but not least, I hope Giulia’s story will help give a voice to the handful of female painters of the Renaissance who stood against the prejudices and conventions of their time to follow their gifts, including Sofonisba Anguissola, who became a painter at the Spanish court; Lavinia Fontana, who received the patronage of two popes; and Artemisia Gentileschi, the first woman to be admitted as a member to the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Their work was nearly forgotten in the centuries after their deaths, but thanks to twentieth-century research, these long-disregarded artists are finally receiving the attention they deserve.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As usual, thanks are due to many people:

My wonderful editor, Melanie Kroupa, whose insight, skill, and meticulous attention to detail has helped this book become the best it could be. I’ve loved working with you, Melanie.

Everyone at Skyscape, for sending the book out into the world in style.

My former and current agents, Jessica Regel and Jennifer Weltz, who do so much on my behalf.

The Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, the most savvy and supportive bunch of people a writer could hope to have on her side.

My mother, whose editorial eye has guided me through all my books.

And my husband, of course, who puts up with my writing-related crises and mood swings, and never fails to remind me, when I’m positive I’ll never get it right, that I
always
say that. And then I carry on.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR