Saturday, August 29, 2020
The best-selling author Sarah Dunant is a distinguished novelist, broadcaster, and art critic.
Sarah Dunant's novels include: In the Name of the Family (2017), Blood and Beauty (2013), (both about the Borgia family), Sacred Hearts (2010), In the Company of the Courtesan (2007), The Birth of Venus (2004). They are set during the Italian Renaissance and weave cutting-edge historical scholarship with fast-moving popular fiction. Sarah’s books have become international bestsellers, translated into thirty languages.
In the interview on August 29th, we discussed Sarah's love for Florence that inspired her first book, The Birth of Venus, which explores the art and culture of the last decades of the 15th century. We talked about Botticelli's little-known illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy and the rise of fundamentalist monk, Savonarola, as well as her latest research into one of the Renaissance's most flamboyant and powerful figures: the art patron and fashion icon, Isabella d'Este, Marchesa of Mantua.
The interview was also featured in The Florentine magazine: https://www.theflorentine.net/2020/10/02/a-chat-with-sarah-dunant/