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

Everyone has heard about the beauty Lucretia Borgia—the debauched and cunning one. But in Renaissance Italy, there were other, no less striking women: poets, writers, singers, owners of salons, nuns, courtesans, and favorites of monarchs—and, of course, artists and models. We can’t weave the history of Italian Renaissance culture without these women. However, their names have been lost over the centuries, and their faces have been forgotten. The novellas presented in this book reconstruct for us the history of their lives, telling about the inspiration they sparked in men and the right to creativity and freedom these women fought for themselves.

The book consists of 15 stories that reveal the secrets of famous paintings and forgotten poems. The facts, names, and dates are authentic, but the emotions in most cases are reconstructed by the author. After all, the chronicles of that era, when listing facts, usually keep silent about feelings, love, and tears. And, speaking of the Renaissance, of course, you can’t do without works of art—so this book contains numerous reproductions of paintings and statues depicting the heroines. They are accompanied by art-historical annotations. Thanks to them, the reader will penetrate deeper into the history of Renaissance art—especially the evolution of portraiture.

The author is Sofia Bagdasarova, an art historian, a twice-nominated candidate for the “Enlightener” (Prosvetitel) award. Author of bestsellers “Thieves, Vandals, and Idiots,” “Disgusting Art,” “Apocalypse in Art,” “Leo Tolstoy Really Loved Children….”