PUBLISHER: Cranthorpe Millner.
The Chapters are presented as: -
Book 1 A
Scene from Terence (Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard)
Book 2 The Duchess of Milan (Hans
Holbein the Younger)
Book 3 The Avenue, Middelharnis (Meyndert
Hobbema)
Book 4 Belshazzar’s Feast (Rembrandt)
Book 5 The Judgement of Paris (Peter
Paul Rubens)
(Note: I have inserted the artists)
The premise of the book intrigued
me; a novel based on five paintings.
Anyone who has a love of art,
especially The Masters, will be captivated by this complex story set in London
and The Netherlands, filled with intrigue, romance, collusion and family secrets.
Artist, Benedict Henry is at a
crossroads in his life. Shortly after he
receives a request from his uncle to paint a portrait, his life implodes. He is somewhat intrigued by the request as he
has had minimal contact with his uncle over the years, having received random postcards
from him with cryptic messages which have somewhat baffled him. They have a strong connection due to their
love of art and this story features references to many artists and paintings
from the eighteenth century Masters, the renowned painters who worked in Europe
before 1800, and the Dutch School, a group of painters active in the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands in
the early part of the seventeenth century, such as Vermeer and Rembrandt,
who both typify opposite ends of the Dutch art world of the 17th century where
fortunes could be made and lost with alarming speed.
Other featured artists are Rubens,
considered to be the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition
and Hobbema, who specialised in views of woodland, although his most famous
painting, depicted in the book, The Avenue at Middelharnis, shows a different
type of scene. Additionally, Hans
Holbein the Younger is referenced, who is noted as an exemplar of the Northern and Florentine Renaissance.
Set in the 1980s, when the
King’s Rooms in Hampton Court Palace are set alight and a fire blazes which
destroys many masterpieces housed there, the novel outlines how Henry wrestled with
his complicated past and depicts how people he had met in bygone days emerge and
take centre stage in his life.
The novel is full of interesting
references, not only to art but to the era in which it’s set and is a
reflection of incidents and contemplation on the forces between art and
actuality, trickery and fact. It is a
complex and forceful piece of work which enmeshes the reader in a tale where manipulation
and confusion are prevalent.
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