Historical novels and narrative nonfiction set in Renaissance Italy, centered on artists, patrons, and the turbulent politics that shaped their masterpieces. Ideal for readers captivated by the rivalry, creativity, and Florence setting in Oil and Mar...
This edition of Stephanie Storey's debut novel follows Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti in early‑16th‑century Florence, dramatizing their near‑forgotten rivalry as David is carved and the Mona Lisa painted. Readers who love art history w...
Oil and Marble: Novel of Leonardo & Michelangelo
Also by Stephanie Storey, this novel shifts to Rome, where Raphael competes with Michelangelo as they decorate the Vatican-Raphael in the papal apartments and Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It offers another art‑history thriller full of ...
Amazon.com: Raphael, Painter in Rome: A Novel
Irving Stone's classic biographical novel immerses readers in Michelangelo's life amid warring popes, Medici intrigue, and the creation of masterpieces like David and the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It complements Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and ...
The Agony and the Ecstasy: Biographical Novel
Walter Isaacson's biography uses thousands of pages from Leonardo's notebooks to connect his paintings to his scientific experiments and wide‑ranging curiosity. After meeting a fictionalized Leonardo in Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michela...
Leonardo da Vinci - Isaacson, Walter
Ross King narrates how Filippo Brunelleschi engineered the massive dome of Florence's Santa Maria del Fiore, solving daunting technical problems with innovative machines and methods. Set in the same city and era as Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo...
Brunelleschi's Dome: Renaissance Genius
Tracy Chevalier imagines the story of Griet, a 16‑year‑old maid who becomes entangled with painter Johannes Vermeer and ultimately sits for his iconic portrait Girl with a Pearl Earring. Like Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo, it b...
Amazon.com: Girl with a Pearl Earring: A Novel
Sarah Dunant's novel follows Alessandra Cecchi, a merchant's daughter in late‑15th‑century Florence, whose marriage and secret attraction to a young painter unfold against plague, invasion, and Savonarola's religious fervor. Its portrait of Renaissan...
The Birth of Venus: A Novel by Sarah Dunant
Jeanne Kalogridis reimagines the life of Lisa Gherardini, the woman behind Leonardo's Mona Lisa, placing her amid Medici politics, the Pazzi conspiracy, and Savonarola's puritanical Florence. Where Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo...
I, Mona Lisa by Natasha Solomons | Goodreads
Karen Essex focuses on Beatrice and Isabella d'Este, powerful sisters who vie for influence, love, and the chance to be immortalized in oil by Leonardo da Vinci at the courts of Milan and Mantua. This novel expands the world of Oil and Marble: A Nove...
Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex | Goodreads
Christopher Moore's satiric historical fantasy brings his jester Pocket to Renaissance Venice, mashing together elements of Shakespeare's Othello and The Merchant of Venice with Venetian politics and art‑soaked atmosphere. While far more comic than O...