Synopses & Reviews
Paint first with your eyes. These are words Lavinia Fontana hears again and again as she eavesdrops on her fathers lessons with his male apprentices. Though her artist father, Prospero Fontana, uses his eyes with great precision in his painting, he does not see the fire and talent in his own daughter. Feeling nearly invisible, Vini struggles to gain the approval of a father focused on his own desire for a son to carry on his work. And while Vini sneaks paper and paint from a studio she is not allowed to be a part of, a tender romance blossoms where she least expects it and a tarot card portending death and darkness” threatens to change her life.
Review
"[D]escriptions of techniques...are carefully presented. This story is unique." KLIATT 11/01/07 KLIATT
Review
Fans of historical fiction will lose themselves in Hawes' sumptuously evoked Renaissance Italy, and aspiring artists will respond to Vini's amazement at "how full of drawings the world is." —Booklist, ALA, Boxed Review
Hawes takes what is known of her (Lavinia Fontana, daughter of the painter Prospero Fontana) life and creates a fictionalized tale of a complicated adolescence. —Kirkus Reviews
This book is a good choice for middle school students and will appeal especially to girls who can relate to its strong, female protagonist. —VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates)
Synopsis
In lush, glowing prose, Louise Hawess historical novel draws readers into the life and art of sixteenth-century Bologna with a compelling account of Lavinia Fontana, arguably the most famous female painter of the Italian Renaissance. Here readers will find a coming-of-age story filled with quest, complication, and catastrophe as well as miracles and hope. Although the novel is set four hundred years ago, the hard choices it involves speak to all times, all places, and are sure to tap into readers own conflicts between head and heart, real life and dreams.
About the Author
Louise Hawes is the author of many novels for young adults and is also a faculty member of the Spalding University MFA in Writing program. She has always loved fairy tales and says that Black Pearls was written for “everyone who dances without looking at the clock.” She lives in North Carolina.