This book, although not exceptionally long was very detailed in its accounts of Alessandra’s life. After the wedding, Alessandra and the painter become lovers, but only once. Shortly after which she becomes pregnant with a daughter. During her pregnancy the city is undergoing great changes. The monks who come to rule the city are denounced by the Pope and eventually by the city, and are eventually burned. Towards the end of the tryant’s rule, men are being taken into custody who are “sodomites”. Alesandra’s painter as well as her brother are taken, which puts her and her husband at great risk, since men are tortured to give up others. The two are saved in the end, due to the shift in power.
In the end Alesandra and her daughter go to a convent outside of Florence. Per the notes of the author ” In the early sixteenth century, as dowries rose and the number of unmarried women increased, certain convents in northern Italy were found to be operating with particularly lax rules on behavior. The Church investigaged, and the offending convents were either cleansed or closed down.”
This depicted the convent in the novel. Alessandra not only entered with her child, but also brought her slave, who eventually earned her freedom. There, she finally gets to truly explore her artistic talents and paints the inside of the convent’s chapel.
This novel depicted a morally and politcially corrupt,Florence. The lives of the people were centered around religion, even luxuries were governed. People needed an outlet, and many found it in the night. I found the story and the historical setting to be fascinating.