Perspective(s) (US) / Perspectives (UK)
An unusual epistolary novel, Perspective(s) is a murder mystery and historical romp set in late 16th-century Florence. In the preface, a 19th-century visitor to Arezzo acquires a stack of yellowed letters from an antique dealer. Although he has never been drawn to Florentine art after the medieval period, he changes his mind after reading the letters and feels compelled to translate them from the Tuscan. In their careful order they tell a story, beginning with Giorgio Vasari sending Michelangelo the description of the brutal murder of Jacopo da Pontormo beneath the frescoes he has nearly completed in the church of San Lorenzo. Who killed the aged painter with his own tools?
From here letters fly, not only about the murder but also the political and religious situation in Florence, run by ambitious, ruthless Cosimo de’ Medici and Pope Paul IV, sworn enemy of artists and books. Two assertive nuns and seventeen-year-old Maria de’ Medici add further complications. Laurent Binet weaves a suspenseful story through multiple perspectives, with correspondents revealing their characters and gossiping about one another. Many are painters, so we get their thoughts about art and those who pursue it. Not until halfway through the book does anyone mention the discovery of perspective in painting—during a melee involving more murders. Towards the end, Vasari quotes Uccello to Michelangelo: “Oh what a sweet thing is this perspective!” He can no longer scorn its laws.
With a puritanical pope and the changing fashions in art, particularly against depiction of nudes, Michelangelo and Pontormo have felt their time is past. Yet humor and madcap plots abound, largely thanks to the irrepressible Benvenuto Cellini. This clever, surprising novel will likely earn Laurent Binet further honors, as will Sam Taylor’s translation. Highly recommended.
