Cupid and the Silent Goddess

Florence, 1544. Duke Cosimo de' Medici has commissioned Agnolo Bronzino to paint An Allegory with Venus and Cupid. Intended as a diplomatic gift for King Franois of France, the Duke demands the seemingly impossible: Bronzino's painting is to be an even greater masterpiece than Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. It will be the artist's defining work: his reputation and, ultimately, his life will depend on its timely completion.

He finds the perfect model for Venus in Angelina, a mute and vulnerable Florentine woman whose beauty is ethereal; a silent goddess oblivious to the dangerous new world that surrounds her. As the painting develops, so too does the relationship between the central models. Can Giuseppe, ordered to pose as the adult Cupid, save Angelina from the cruel fate planned for her by the Duke?

Alan Fisk is the author of The Strange Things of the World (1988), The Summer Stars (1992), Forty Testoons (1999) and Lord of Silver (2000). A member of the Historical Novel Society, he has lectured on subjects including 'Writing Historical Novels' and 'Story Theory'.