Marina Fiorato - The Botticelli Secret

3. Duplicity is an important theme throughout the book. How is Guido plagued by a feeling of duplicity? In which other characters do we see (or not see) duplicity? Can there be both positive and negative effects of a duplicitous nature?

4. Despite their differences, why do you think Luciana and Guido are drawn to each other?

5. Guido, as a man of the cloth, believes in God, whereas Luciana, as a woman of the streets, believes only in herself. Throughout the story, both beliefs are called into question. Do you think it’s more important to have faith in God, or faith in yourself? Are the two mutually exclusive?

THE MONASTERY AT SANTA CROCE

6. Discuss the nine cities of Renaissance Italy as “characters” in the book. How is each portrayed? And what role does each play in shaping Luciana and Guido?

7. Do you believe that a picture is worth a thousand words? Can a work of art—a painting, or a book—ever truly capture a person’s essence? Did Botticelli’s portrait of Luciana, even as she sat as an archetype, capture hers?

8. The action in this novel is built around several secrets which Luciana and Guido unearth. Discuss the element of mystery in these pages. What types of narrative devices did the author use to keep the reader guessing?

9. The Botticelli Secret is about strength and frailty, truth and beauty, art and artifice. It is also about the ties that bind us to family—in all its glory and pain. How important is the notion of family to Luciana? Which relationships, regardless of the standard definition of “family,” seem the most real to you in the book?

10. In the story, Sandro Botticelli is an artist but he’s also a member of a powerful inner circle. What does The Botticelli Secret suggest about the role and function of art in the Renaissance era? Was it more or less political than it is today?

11. What do you imagine happens after the end of the novel? What do you think Luciana and Guido’s life will be like now that they are free to be together, and Luciana knows her real identity? What truths do you think she’ll learn about herself?

For more special features, photographs, and “secret trivia” about this book, please visit the author’s Web site at www.marinafiorato.com.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE BOTTICELLI SECRET. Copyright © 2010 by Marina Fiorato. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fiorato, Marina.

The Botticelli secret / Marina Fiorato.—1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-312-60636-7

1. Artists’ models—Fiction. 2. Art thefts—Fiction. 3. Botticelli, Sandro, 1444 or 5–1510—Fiction. 4. Venice (Italy)—Fiction. I. Title.

PR6106.I67B67 2010

823' .92—dc22

2009033892

First Edition: April 2010

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