Sarah Dunant’s trilogy of books, The Birth of Venus, In the Company of the Courtesan and Sacred Hearts, bring the Renaissance to life through the people who lived in that period. She explained that her fictional accounts were inspired by the art of that time. Women rarely featured, and those that were, were not represented particularly well. “Dreamy, coy, lovely” – that’s how they looked, Dunant said, repeating the words several times for effect – but what was lacking was the representation of character.
“Where did I go to find pictures of real women?”
Dunant said she searched Florence, exploring and researching, trying to discover the personalities that would make up her books. From galleries to churches to covenants, Dunant was committed to uncovering these people and giving them a voice.
If you missed this, you might enjoy event 369, War on Culture – The Politics of Reconstructing Cultural Heritage on Saturday 2 June at 1pm. Please visit Hay Player for the world's great writers on audio and film: https://www.hayfestival.com/hayplayer/default.aspx?