The Painted Room
20 June 2025
Territory Rights — Worldwide including Canada, but excluding the British Commonwealth.
Description
A captivating experimental novel about the Italian Renaissance by the Danish master, whose “sensuous language resonates with cosmic urgency” (Columbia Review).
The Painted Room is a magnificent three-part short novel about the Italian Renaissance, and, specifically, the intrigue surrounding the frescoes that Mategna (1431-1506) made on the walls of a famous bridal chamber in the ducal palace of Lodovico III Gonzaga. Prince Lodovico of Mantua invites Mantegna to his palace to decorate the chamber, and the paintings are slowly completed. The painting of the duke and his family looks so peaceful—you would never guess that a murder had just taken place.The prince's secretary records its progress in his gossip-laden diary, while the story of the prince's daughter, the dwarf Nana, digs deeper into darker motivations, involving deceit, vendettas, an assassination, and the dalliances of Pope Pius II. Mantegna’s young son, Bernardino, helps complete the paintings and introduces a note of high fantasy into the narrative. What results is a beautiful yet startling picture of the Renaissance, as rich and colorful as the men and women depicted on the palace walls.
Reviews
"Christensen’s probing, questioning, hopeful voice was an important one and is missed." — Kirkus Reviews
"Inger Christensen manages to make wit, passion and questioning, and astonishing design serve each other’s ends as one, and she does it in a way that is utterly her own." — W. S. Merwin
"Despite the rigorous structure that undergirded her work—or, more likely, because of it—Ms. Christensen’s style was lyrical, even playful." — New York Times
"The inspiration for 'The Painted Room' is an elaborate 15th-century fresco famed for its trompe l’oeil effect, as the members of the ruling Gonzaga family it depicts seem to be standing in the room with you. Christensen’s cunning, jewel-like work builds on this illusionism, misting the lines between history and fairy tale." — Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
