Book Review

L’ARCHITETTRICE

by Angelo Pallotta

Rome. 1624. Giovanni Briccio, a plebeian genius in a Rome both bigoted and libertine, takes his eight-year-old daughter Plautilla along the beach of Santa Severa, north of Rome, where she encounters a whale. A chimerical creature never sighted off the coasts of Italy, right there in front of her eyes, proving to her the existence of a world unseen, beyond the horizon. It is precisely this understanding, impressed upon her from a young age, which makes that child an artist, a mysterious painter and architect in the murky splendour of Rome’s baroque 17th Century. The first female architect in European history. Her father Giovanni Briccio, is a talented painter, playwright, poet, writer and journalist, but hides behind a myriad of pseudonyms, rejected by Roman Letterati and ignored by Roman nobility on account of his humble origins. A mattress maker by trade, he imparts upon his daughter a sound education and instils in her the importance of chastity, projecting her into the tightly-held, highly-classed Roman art circle as a child prodigy, chosen by the Madonna herself as a messenger, in an attempt to make her the artist that he himself was never able to become. Plautilla, doubly disadvantaged by her low class and her gender, thanks to her father’s sound teachings, as well as some fortuitous encounters along the way, will reach a fame far greater than her father had dared imagine. Suffocated by her father’s overbearing presence, she will sacrifice her youth, living through prejudice, regime changes, the plague and resigning herself to a clandestine love. Melania Mazzucco, Premio Strega 2003, paints an intricate and brutally realistic portrait of a unique woman. Held together by an unpretentious prose, her book weaves art, ostentation, intrigue, bigotry and violence through the dense

60 SECTION BOOK REVIEW

L’ARCHITETTRICE

Einaudi, November 2019 560 pages Historical novel by Melania G. Mazzucco

tapestry of Roman society. She offers precious insight into seventeenth-century Rome, with all its extremes and contradictions, from the filthy vicoli where beggars and penniless artists make their home, to the sumptuous palaces of the aristocracy, in a world in which extreme poverty and wealth coexist. The author also facilitates encounters between the protagonists and world-renowned historical characters such as Bernini, Pietro da Cortona and Francesco Borromini. Mazzucco takes the reader on a journey through Rome, as it evolves into the beautiful city we know today, narrating, with impeccable historic precision, the creation of well-known monuments and landmarks, including Saint Peter’s Basilica, Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna, exploring every corner and alley of the city, painting a vivid and evocative picture in the reader’s mind. This novel, while not exactly a page-turner or a mindless piece of escapism, contains all the elements of a great historical novel. Mazzucco succeeds in combining art history with the love story, detailing the main events of the 1600s in Italy through the accurate description of artists and their works, skilfully interweaving the story of Plautilla and Elpidio. Most importantly, Mazzucco brings to life an artist who, though still admired today, never received the same attention as her contemporaries, portraying a woman who, with apparent meekness and resignation, took possession of her life with audacity and determination to become the first female architect of modern history.