A historical novel writer with a website focused on Raphael and Venice
Historical fiction is a great way to learn about the past but with empathy, allowing the reader to enter into the interior lives of the characters, for them to feel alive. Thus here are my suggestions of books to read to learn about a crucial period of history, the Holocaust.
Neil Pasricha, bestselling author of The Book of Awesome and other books, lists his most awesome historical fiction recommendations.
It’s that time of year to put out holiday gift lists. Everyone has suggestions and often a focus, and mine is no different: Gifts related to everyone’s favorite painter, Raphael!
Will Venice experience more - and worse - acqua altas in the future?
This post is why my yearlong focus on Raphael.
Raphael’s love life has been a source of fascination since his untimely death, from the sixteenth-century biographer Giorgio Vasari to my own coauthored novel The Sidewalk Artist. While Raphael was undoubtedly engaged to a cardinal’s daughter, Maria Bibbiena, he never married her and many have speculated that the great love of his life was La … Continue reading That’s Amore: Raphael’s Love Life
More news continues to straggle in about the upcoming 500th anniversary of Raphael's death and related ephemera (though long may his art live). Perhaps the biggest dispatch to recently emerge from the art history world is the determination that the Haddo Madonna in Scotland was likely NOT painted by Raphael. The painting was examined by … Continue reading Raphael: The Latest on the Renaissance Artist
Modern-Day Mystery: Where is Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man?
I guess the universe was listening because yesterday Google alerts sent me a major Raphael update in the form of an article just published in The Art Newspaper, "After Leonardo, the spotlight is on Raphael for the 500th anniversary of his death next year." Thankfully, several Raphael retrospectives are in the works in time for … Continue reading Major Update on Raphael @500!
Raphael self-portrait, approximately 23 years old Raphael Sanzio: one of the world’s first Renaissance men, right up there with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci as part of the most famous artistic trinity. And yet in many ways, an afterthought. Younger than Michelangelo by eight years, Raphael was born on Good Friday 1483, after Leonardo had … Continue reading The Upcoming 500th Anniversary of Raphael’s Death
