Historical novels about artists and composers

I have been racking my brains for you!!!


I just tried to find a way to search Amazon and get the right results, but it didn't really work.


This one

http://www.amazon.com/Birth-Venus-Novel-Sarah-Dunant/dp/0812968972/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248482526&sr=1-4


The Birth of Venus, has a lot about Florene's artists just before the Savanorola disaster...and you may find it interesting.

I think you have read the artist ones I can think of...



Re non artists/musicians...and special kind of person/period you are interested in?


The other thing I can think of is that you could search Amazon or just google, for a particular artist/composer + novel.




There is a lovely Robert Burns one I readyears ago, but I can't remember the name!

The first book I thought of, Parallel Lives, is about the marriages of five victorian writers.. I chased it down on amazon and saw all the stuff about feminism and patriarchy, and decided I could interest relatively few in that, and then it wasn't about painters or musicians. So I didn't post it.

But.. I had bought the book at a used book store with no back story in the buying, and learned a lot, including about Dickens. I'd go so far as to recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/Parallel-Lives-Five-Victorian-Marriages/dp/0394725808/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248483655&sr=1-1

I once had quite a collection of police procedurals set in europe and involving art, more than a hundred paperbacks, even two hundred. I tossed them to a used book store regretfully in my last move. Many of them did actually talk about the art, some were lame, some fascinating.

So, I'd recommend looking under that category at whatever book site you use.

Biographical novels? I'm still cogitating.

Oh, wait - the obvious, one of my favorite all time books.

Cellini's Autobiography. There ya go...

There are multiple translations.. some older books have great illustrations. Or, I remember one that did. What happened to that book... uh oh.

But for a start on Cellini,
http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199555311/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248484705&sr=1-1

Have you read Vasari? This is one I could stand to read again - I've probably read it twice.

http://www.amazon.com/Lives-Artists-Classics-Giorgio-Vasari/dp/0140441646/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248485127&sr=1-2

I've been to Vasari's house, somewhat haphazardly, between a morning latte and a later porchetta sandwich, being there in Arezzo to see the True Cross Cycle by Piero della Francesca. I liked old Arezzo, though we stayed in a flea bag albergo, recommended by Lost Souls Planets, and I liked Vasari's place. In some ways the house was more engaging than the cycle, as it was still a house. The Piero work needed, if I remember right, coin feeding for light, and I'm night blind, so not all so great... professional photos show more. The house of Vasari was a house, easier for me to connect.

And then there's Canaday. His books have been part of my reading, whether or not his views have been superceded by now, on many artists.

Thanks, Dlowan. I'll check out the Birth of Venus book since I'm already familiar with the period from Stone's Michelangelo tale. The Paralell Lives book looks interesting, but I'm more interested in fiction right now.

Sorry about the delay in replying; I don't have a computer and have to go to library once a week for computer access. Also buying books and videos is a problem for me since the internet has all but obliterated book and video stores and, not having a credit card, I cannot buy on the internet or even Ebay anymore. Yes, paypal has monopolized Ebay in the U.S. so sellers can't accept money orders or even cashier's checks anymore. I know that this system was shot down in Australia by the government, but, alas, this is the U.S. Fortunately, we have a giant used book store in Dallas, which, because of lack of competition is doing a booming business.

These come to mind, but I'm sure I'll think of some more:

Naked came I: A novel of Rodin- David Weiss
Cezanne's Quarry- Barbara Pope
Caravaggio's Angel - Ruth Brandon
Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland
(I'm not a big Vreeland fan, but this book was better than Girl in Hyacinth Blue. There's an interesting movie about Artemisia Gentileschi, called Artemisia that has nothing to do with the facts, but it's a lovely film to watch.)
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo- Hayden Herrera (I also liked the movie of her life.)
A Life of Picasso- John Richardson (this is a series of books, all very well done.)

Oops, just noticed you only said novels. The last couple are biographies, but still very worthwhile and probably better than any work of fiction on the subjects.

Another book by Sarah Dunant is In the Company of the Courtesan, set in Rome & Venice in the sixteenth century. Titian (or rather Tiziano) is a minor character.

Gustav von Aschenbach, the principal character of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, is partly modeled on Gustav Mahler.

There IS a novelisation of Frida Kahlo's life....written from the point of view of her sister


http://www.amazon.com/Frida-Barbara-Mujica/dp/0452283035/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249082544&sr=1-12



Frida by Barbara Mujica

And she and Trotsky are novelised in this one:

In the Casa Azul: A Novel of Revolution and Betrayal by Meaghan Delahunt


http://www.amazon.com/Casa-Azul-Novel-Revolution-Betrayal/dp/0312291078/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249082544&sr=1-10

I just remembered another title:

Headlong by Michael Frayn

It's about a lost Bruegel painting.

The movie slightly resembles Mahler, mostly using his music, but I don't think the director, Visconti, meant that Aschenbach was Mahler. The novel makes no allusion to Mahler at all.

Thanks, green witch. I'll check these out.

I don't think a one-to-one mapping between Aschenbach and Mahler was intended, of course, either by Mann or by Visconti. That's why I said "partly based on." Mann's Aschenbach resembles Mahler in fairly superficial ways, mostly having to do with physical appearance. Visconti was evidently intrigued enough by the connection to change the character's profession from an author to a composer, but yes, neither Mann nor Visconti was trying to suggest a direct equation of Aschenbach and Mahler.

I saw no allusion to Mahler at all in the Mann novel, though some people think of Mahler as Aschenbach in the movie, and then, perhaps in retrospection do likewise in the novel.

The only connection I can see to Mahler in the movie is that both Aschenbach and Mahler died of a heart attack, and, of course they were both composers.

There are a lot of good suggestions here that I intend to check out. Another one I heard about was "Absinthe" by John Roach, or maybe it was "Roach" by John Absinthe, but at any rate it's about Degas.