'Beauty is the beacon of God,' said Botticelli. 'No, it's not. Love is,' snapped his sister. Beauty: Botticelli in Florence imagines what Botticelli was feeling and thinking as he painted. The people he loved and despised, his private struggle between spirituality and sensuality, the tempestuous times he lived through ? all come to life in his images? The novel is a speculation based on the few facts known about Botticelli, informed by his paintings. There are many surprises. The Birth of Venus was a tapestry design. And his famed self-portrait didn't depict him (as widely believed) but Pierfrancesco de Medici, who sued his powerful cousin Lorenzo for robbing him, abolished Florence's homophobic witch-hunts, funded Vespucci's journey to the New World and commissioned Botticelli's most famous works. There was boiling tension between him and Botticelli. This is the first in a sequence of illustrated 'painting novels' that make sights as telling as words. AUTHOR: Julian Spalding (born 15 June 1947 in Lewisham, South London) is an English art critic, writer, broadcaster and a former curator. Considered to be a controversial maverick and outspoken critic of the art world, he has frequently contributed to arts, news and current affairs programmes on radio and TV. SELLING POINTS: . A novel based on the few facts known about Botticelli, informed by his paintings, Beauty: Botticelli in Florence imagines his thoughts and feelings as he painted them 40 colour illustrations
