The Miracles of Prato: A Novel [Paperback]

Laurie Albanese (Author), Laura Morowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2010

Italy, 1456. The Renaissance is in glorious bloom. A Carmelite monk, the great artist Fra Filippo Lippi acts as chaplain to the nuns of the Convent Santa Margherita. It is here that he encounters the greatest temptation of his life, beautiful Lucrezia Buti, who has been driven to holy orders more by poverty than piety. In Lucrezia's flawless face Lippi sees the inspiration for countless Madonnas and he brings the young woman to his studio to serve as his model. But as painter and muse are united in an exhilarating whirl of artistic discovery, a passionate love develops, one that threatens to destroy them both even as it fuels some of Lippi's greatest work.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A formulaic foray into the world of Renaissance Italy, this novel based on the life of painter Fra Filippo Lippi will be lapped up by fans of historical romance. In the year 1457, Lippi, a Carmelite monk in Prato, spots the lovely Lucrezia Buti and wants to use her as a model for his paintings and frescoes. Lucrezia's visits to the painter's bottega are misinterpreted by the convent's corrupt and powerful prior general, with irreparable consequences for the girl. But Lippi and Lucrezia fall in love, and through a series of intrigues involving the disappearance of a relic revered as miraculous by the people of Prato, the painter and his lover are vindicated and can live happily ever after—at least until the hasty last chapter. Albanese (Blue Suburbia) and art historian Morowitz have taken a historical rumor and fashioned it into a saccharine, tidy and satisfying romance. (Feb.)
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Review

“A richly detailed and thoroughly engrossing story told with equal measures of ardor, tenderness, and compassion, THE MIRACLES OF PRATO offers a poignant portrayal of the heartbreak of two people caught in the Church’s grip during the Italian Renaissance.” (Judith Lindbergh, author of The Thrall’s Tale, on MIRACLES OF PRATO )

“Richly textured Renaissance romance. …[T]he authors have fashioned an irresistibly passionate novel steeped in art, history, and the miracles wrought by love.” (Booklist on MIRACLES OF PRATO )

“Like Fra Filippo’s paintings, this love story, set in one of the most intriguing historical periods, is suffused with clear, warm color and fine attention to detail.” (Debra Dean, author of The Madonnas of Leningrad )

“The Miracles of Prato is a time machine, taking the reader back to the height of the Italian Renaissance, revealing a world of childlike innocence and illicit passion, harsh injustice and saintly miracles, and wafting around it all like rare perfume, the creation of art for the glory of God.” (Eleanor Herman, author of Mistress of the Vatican, on MIRACLES OF PRATO )

“This novel based on the life of Fra Filippo Lippi will be lapped up by fans of historical romance.” (Publishers Weekly on MIRACLES OF PRATO )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (February 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061558354
• ISBN-13: 978-0061558351
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #277,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An earthbound Madonna fuels a painter's divine aspirations, January 4, 2009

By 

S. Hodge - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Miracles of Prato: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Based on history, The Miracles of Prato tells the tale of Lucrezia Buti, who is unexpectedly forced to join the Convent Santa Margherita in 1456 after her silkmaker father's sudden death and the loss of their family fortune. Both Lucrezia and her sister Spinetta are cloistered, but for Lucrezia it comes as a bit of a shock, since she was already betrothed (her pious younger sister had been raised for convent life all along). She chafes against its renouncement of all worldly pleasures and relentless hard work from dawn til dusk, punctuated by prayer. The Chaplain of Santa Margherita, Fra Filippo Lippi, is one of the foremost religious painters in Italy, and when he sees Lucrezia for the first time, he knows that it is her divine face that he will use for the face of the Madonna in a commissioned work. Lucrezia is warned to avoid Fra Filippo and his love of earthly passions. He convinces the Prioress to allow Lucrezia (with her sister Spinetta as chaperone) to model for him, even as he falls madly in love with her. It is her face that superstitious locals associate with the Madonna, and it's rumored that she has mystical healing powers.

The novel is based on fact; Fra Filippo did indeed have a relationship with Lucrezia Buti, who proved to be his muse, lover, and mother of his son Filippino, who would also become a famed painter. The authors paint a vivid, richly painted Renaissance Tuscany and the claustrophobic world of the cloister, with its narrow cells, aged nuns, and lack of comforts. Lucrezia's sole escape is tending to the convent gardens, which are the source of medicinal herbs used in the infirmary (there are many fascinating sidenotes on Renaissance herbal cures and their preparations) and also the source of some of the colors used by Fra Filippo; as Lucrezia is a silkmaker's daughter, she is intimately familiar with the natural sources of pigments, and is eager to impress Fra Filippo with her knowledge. The authors also include several detailed discussions on Renaissance methods of grinding and mixing pigments and on painting schools and techniques, along with the rich fabrics and clothing styles of the nobility.

The story is at heart a historical romance decorated with the delicate, elegant trappings of Renaissance religious art and a portrait of the vast power and wealth (and its abuse) by Italy's Catholic clerics. The novel begins with a crucial event, then tells the remainder of the story in flashback before returning to the fateful moment referenced. The climax was a delightful twist that gave several vile characters their "divine" comeuppance, and the final chapter brought the story full circle. Richly detailed and lushly drawn, The Miracles of Prato will appeal to fans of historical art fiction and Renaissance Italy.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Miracles of Prato, February 19, 2009

By 

Xoe Li Lu "xoelilu" (Sea Girt, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Miracles of Prato: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Having lived in Florence for several years and been a student of Renaissance art, I was initially concerned that The Miracles of Prato might travel the melodramatic route of several other recent "art historical fictions" (which shall remain nameless, but you know the ones I'm talking about!). I was relieved that it largely does not succumb to the formulaic sappiness that has marred other stories based on the lives of painters. While the story does have its dime-novel moments, it is for the most past respectful of history.

Set in the heart of the Italian Renaissance in a town on the outskirts of Florence, the story focuses on the trials and tribulations of Carmelite monk and famed painter Fra Filippo Lippi, and his scandalous relationship with the daughter of a prosperous Florentine silk merchant who has been consigned to a convent that is under Lippi's ministry. Authors Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz had a wonderful base to work with, for the real story of Fra Filippo and his two famous loves - painting and Lucrezia Buti - is so fascinating that it doesn't need much embellishment. While the actual details of Fra Filippo and Lucrezia's alleged relationship are hazy at best, the authors have done a lovely job imagining and recreating what might have been. The authors naturally have had to fabricate characters and situations to round out the story, but overall they remain true to the historical facts that are known about the amorous couple. It helps that author Laura Morowitz is a Professor of Art History who received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU - I believe it is her influence that kept the story from veering off course. I appreciated that the authors didn't take unjust liberties with the fascinating history upon which their story is based.

The Miracles of Prato is an engrossing, interesting read that contains all of the elements of good fiction while still maintaining a healthy reverence for historical fact and detail.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Parallels in Prato, March 10, 2009

By 

Tabitha C. Wade "analytical reader" (Gadsden, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Miracles of Prato: A Novel (Hardcover)

A monk and a novitiate--in love. It was scandalous, romantic, dangerous, and desperate. This story, reminiscent of a Shakespearean tragedy-romance, is based on fact, full of breathtaking description and heart wrenching sorrow. The Miracles of Prato is a study of parallels: parallels between love and hate, despair and ecstasy, truth and appearances, life inside and outside the church, the differences between men and women, the physical and the divine, and even the parallel talents of the authors themselves.

With an historian's eye for factual detail, Laura Morowitz situates this true story of two forbidden lovers within the historical details of 15th century Italy, while Laurie Lico Albanese uses her gift for story-telling to weave a cohesive story that captures the beauty, hope and desperation of illicit love.

Lucrezia Buti finds her life disrupted and her plans for a husband and family destroyed by the death of her father. When her father's silk-making business is taken to settle his debts, the only alternative is for Lucrezia and her sister Spinetta to seek shelter with the sisters of Santa Margherita. As a novitiate, Lucretzia meets and falls in love with Fra Filippo Lippi, the convent's chaplain and an acclaimed artist. A monk driven to the cloth for similar reasons as Lucretzia, Lippi spends his days trying to reconcile the parallels between the divine and the physical that he sees around him.

Taking solace in her work tending herbs in the convent's garden, Lucrezia quickly recognizes the parallels between her knowledge of mixing dyes for her father's silk's and mixing paints for Lippi's legendary paintings. When she voices her concern to the chaplain that she is too attached to beautiful things, Lippi responds by pointing out that physical beauty on earth is merely a reflection, a parallel of the divine beauty in heaven, and that appreciation of beauty is a kind of worship. For Lippi, "painting is prayer," and he prays by painting Lucrezia as his Madonna, the face of his Mother of God.

As their mutual desire for beauty--Lippi's for Lucrezia, and Lucrezia's for Lippi's paintings--draws them together, the ugliness of their impossible situation and gossiping tongues threatens their safety and happiness as their infant son is taken from them in an act of retribution. The Miracles of Prato ends before the factual story does, leaving the reader curious to know more about this unlikely coupling, and reluctant to put down this elegant and literary work of historical fiction.