New Book Alert: The Secret Life of Sofonisba Anguissola by Melissa Muldoon; Wonderful Romantic Historical Fiction About A Brilliant Artist and Woman
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: The more I work on this blog, the more I begin to agree with Virginia Woolf "I would venture to guess that Anon...was often a woman" not to mention Laurel Thatcher Ulrich that "well-behaved women seldom make history."
Both of these legendary quotes about the absence of women in conventional historical, literary, and artistic accounts reveal why it was so difficult for women to be spoken of in the same breath as their male peers. Even now it is a wonderful experience to learn about and meet many of these women for the first time like the Yekineyen Parastina Jin, Elizabeth Craven, Sophie de Tott, Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, Caroline Ferriday and the Ravensbruck Rabbits, Alouette Richard and Marthe Cnockeart, Elsa Schiaparelli , Danielle Casanova, Mai Politzer, and the other women of the French Resistance, Harriet Jacobs, Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin, Dorothy Vaughn. Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson, Ruth Handler, and Henry VIII's so-called lesser known wives, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Kateryn Parr
That's one of the things that I love about this job: reading historical fiction and nonfiction and discovering a new and zoutstanding name to be added to others. But sometimes, it's sad that many of these names are being read for the first time. I sometimes wonder how it is that many people don't already know of these courageous talented women? Why are they not automatically mentioned in the same breath as their male counterparts? Why did it take me 40+ years to learn Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson's name when I already knew Paul Revere's since I was 7? In the decades since gender studies have been brought to light in academia, are women still lagging behind or are we finally catching up? Or to rephrase a meme, why is traditional white men's history and literature still a requirement and women's (and for that matter Black and Indigenous and Asian etc.) history and literature still an elective?
Modern publishing is taking great strides to correct that. Best Seller lists, libraries, and bookstores are flooded with titles of both fiction and nonfiction books about real life women from different time periods that are finally getting their stories told. We can't change that we haven't heard about them before, but we can change hearing about them from now on. Authors and historians will do their best to tell their story, while reviewers like me will do our best to share those stories even further.
Melissa Muldoon is one of those authors who is doing her bit to promote historic women in the arts. She has written a four part series about Italian Renaissance artists, patrons, and promoters, all of them female. These books are a memorable legacy about how art is seen and shared. Also that sometimes the female artist's soul can be revealed more in her work than in her personal life, when societal constraints sometimes forbade her from being open about her private life.
One of Muldoon's books is The Secret Life of Sofonisba Anguissola, a conventional historical fiction novel which tells about portrait painter Sofonisba Anguissola. In this brilliant detailed novel, an elderly Anguissola tells fellow artist, Anthony Van Dyck, the story of her life with one challenge: one of the details in her story is a lie. She dares Van Dyck (and the Reader) to guess which one. With this introduction, Muldoon weaves fact and fiction to tell a wonderful story about a spirited independent woman who embraced her talent before love and ended up getting both.
Anguissola begins by telling the origin of her name and proud family history. Her surname Anguissola came from an ancestor who was a soldier and warrior nicknamed Anguissola (the serpent) for his cunning nature. Her first name, Sofonisba came from a Carthaginian princess who was caught in a deadly love triangle. She also reveals her nickname, Sorella Leone (Sister Lion) as the oldest and most fiery of her and her four siblings. The name origins foreshadow Anguissola's future as an intelligent spirited woman caught up in the passions and combats of the day.
We also see how Anguissola's family influenced her path. Her parents were unconventional, believing that their daughters should be educated along with their son.
Not only does Sofonisba show a talent in art but her other sisters are adept in other fields: Minerva is a talented poet and writer, Elena is a gifted musician and composer, and Europa has a more mathematical mind. The passages where the sisters play act stories from history and mythology as well as their diverse skills are similar to the March Sisters in Little Women who use their talents for entertainment and future prospects (and coming from a similarly talented family who show our diverse skills in music, art, computer science, writing, veterinary medicine, drama, education, and finance, I find these chapters completely relatable).
Because of this upbringing, the Anguissola Sisters are more real and more defined than their younger brother, Asdrubale. He grows into a spoiled brat who contributes nothing, except withholding funds and permission to wed, all with the lame declaration that he is the head of the family, though does nothing to earn that title.
Anguissola's education is dwelt upon as she studies under great artists like Bernardino Campi and Michelangelo Buonarroti learning how to perfect her portraits of the human body and add form, shadow, and texture to her work. One of the key moments that foreshadows Anguissola's genius is a painting that she makes as a gift for Campi. It is a pentimento, in which an artist's original underdrawing bleeds into the finished project in essence, a hidden message or detail within the original painting. The portrait is a self portrait with an image of Campi painting her. Even more impressive is the detail in which Anguissola's hand is on top of Campi's so it is uncertain who is painting whom.
Anguissola also reveals a strong independent character when she resolves that she will devote herself to her art. Many women chose to marry, but her first love is her art and she has no intention of marrying until she is good and ready. In fact true to her resolve, she doesn't marry for the first time until she is in her mid-30's and in a situation where marriage is her only option.
By far the most intriguing chapters are the ones set in Spain where Anguissola is hired as a portrait painter/art teacher/spy for Elizabeth of Valois, wife of King Phillip of Spain and the eldest daughter of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. As I mentioned before, I love how historical fiction (and nonfiction for that matter) authors will take a historic character and give them a different outlook, so you are experiencing different aspects of the same figure.
I recently was acquainted with King Phillip through Philippa Gregory's The Queen's Fool and The Virgin's Lover, both of which focus on Phillip's unhappy marriage to Queen Mary Tudor and failed courtship and rivalry with Queen Elizabeth. In both books, he is seen as a feckless callous self-centered oaf who openly flirts with pretty younger women while married to Mary and verbally abuses her when she is unable to bear children. He proves to be no match for Elizabeth's cunning and sly nature.
However, Muldoon's version of Phillip is an older and wiser man, happily married to Elizabeth and in mourning for his former wife, the Infanta Maria Manuela who died giving birth to his son, Don Carlos. He is older and sees the ramifications of his past, becoming a more mature thoughtful man. He is also constantly exasperated and frustrated by the behaviors of his son, Don Carlos, relying more on his associate Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the Duke of Alba. Phillip considers Alba a better person to become his heir rather than the ruthless sadistic Don Carlos.
Elizabeth of Valois is seen as a sweet loving person who is so concerned for Anguissola's welfare when she recruits her as a spy that she tells her that all she has to do is listen as she paints and reports gossip. She is not to concern herself with notes, codes, or anything dangerous. Anguissola is just supposed to share any gossip or rumors that she hears.
Also, as a Medici descendant, Elizabeth has a keen eye and appreciation for the arts which she reveals in her sisterly bond with the portrait painter. She is the type of sweet fragile good character that, even without the benefit of studying history, you just know something bad will happen to them even when you hope it doesn't.
While Phillip and Elizabeth and her family are diverse in their frequent portrayals in various media, I have yet to hear of an account of Don Carlos in which he is not written as a complete psychopath. While he may garner some sympathies because of his physical abnormalities such as scoliosis, it is his cruel and despotic nature that is often at play. In this Novel, he tortures young women whom he takes to bed for fun, openly lusts after his young stepmother, and violently attacks anyone who dares to disagree with him. Don Carlos is so sadistic and deplorable that many hope for his comeuppance before he finally receives it.
This is a tempestuous household that Anguissola finds herself in and finds protection not only from Elizabeth but from Alba. Unfortunately, Alba has a less altruistic side. He lusts after Anguissola and doesn't buy her devotion to art. His behavior becomes unstable and even borderline stalkerish when she becomes romantically involved with sea captain, Orazio Lemollino arranging his dismissal and fumes with obsessive jealousy when she finds herself pregnant and is forced to marry Fabrizio Pignatelli to save face.
Far from being a dry account of chronological events of Anguissola's life, Anguissola (and Muldoon of course) sprinkle the narrative with literary touches that make one doubt the veracity of her tale but enjoy it all the same. Remember the whole theme is finding the lie in Anguissola's story so of course she is going to embellish, fabricate, and play with her narrative. Of course with Anguissola as a narrator, she is going to give Muldoon permission to take liberties with her history.
Some of the events play into various genres. Anguissola's first meeting with Orazio is pure romance as they meet for the first time when they are young. They have a splendid time for one night walking the streets of Etruria and encouraging one another in their pursuits of art and seamanship. They don't get each other's names at first but Sofonisba can't get him out of her mind. Lo and behold, they reunite years later in Spain and begin a very passionate affair as two people that are similar in intelligence, drive, and passion. (Because of course, people always reunite in one country after encountering each other for one night, years ago in a completely different country.)
There is a whiff of murder mystery as a few months after Anguissola's marriage to the much older Pignatelli, he dies under mysterious circumstances. Pignatelli's spoiled temperamental daughter, Cinzia, suspects Anguissola while Anguissola herself is surrounded by sinister characters including Cinzia and both of her former paramours, Alba and Orazio, who arrive just in time for Pignatelli to conveniently be murdered.
Anguissola knows how to play her audience. She tells her story so well that Van Dyck (and the Reader) don't care about finding the lie. We just enjoy the fascinating time spent with this brilliant, vibrant, and talented woman that Muldoon captured through her excellent writing.
