Art & Books Message Board

Thought I'd throw out some titles that I've enjoyed that are a perfect fit for this Groupl. . .

The Book of Evidence by John Banville

The Stone Virgin by Barry Unsworth

What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt

The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga

La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl by David Huddle

The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte

The entire "Art History Mysteries" series by Iain Pears

The Raphael Affair
The Titian Committee
The Bernini Bust
The Last Judegement
Giotto's Hand
Death and Restoration
The Immaculate Deception

The Portriat by Iain Pears

Life Studies: Stories by Susan Vreeland

Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach

Stop right there!!! lol
I have so many books to be read and now i will have to add some of those titles to my huge pile!
:)
To your list i add some more (some of them i have them as TBR still):
A cup of Light, Nicole Mones (porcelain)
The Birth of Venus, Sara Dunant (painting)
The Pillars of the earth, Ken Follett (architecture)
The Heaven Tree Trilogy, Edith Pargeter (architecture and sculptures)
Angels and Demons, Dan Brown (sculptures)
The Forest Lover, Susan Vreeland (painting)
The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher (painting)
The Tempest, Juan Manuel de Prada (painting)
The Modigliani Scandal, Ken Follett (painting)
Landscape of Lies, Peter Watson (painting)

And, just to tease you, here are some my favorites:
L'enfant de Bruges, Gilbért Sinoué (painting)
Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland (painting)
The Passion of Artemisia, Susan Vreeland (painting)
The Lady and the Unicorn, Tracy Chevalier (tapestries)
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier (painting)

Some of my favourites here, and many more suggestions. Oh no - it really is a case of too many books, not enough time. But I will add one:

The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart (Stone carving)

Here's a list that I've enjoyed (with links so that they are easy to navigate):
The Passion of Artemesia & Girl in Hyacinth Blue, both by Susan Vreeland
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Chasing Cezanne by Peter Mayle - I didn't enjoy this one as much, but it fits the mold.

And some others that are more non-fiction:
Brunelleschi's Dome & Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, both by Ross King

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl- Actually about literary works, as opposed to artistic works...but very similar in style and appeal. Murder mystery set in early new england. See my review for more info.

I'll post more later.

Are any of you familiar with the author WG Sebald? His novel "Austerlitz" is excellent...

I collect this type of book and am happy to see a group about them. :)

I have quite a few and am always adding more as I find them. If you look under 'fine art fiction' in my tags you'll see what I have so far. Looking forward to finding more from other LTers :)

Many of my collection I haven't even read yet, they are on the TBR pile which is toppling over :)

My favorite so far is The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland

I loved The Sixteen Pleasures, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Girl in Hyacinth Blue,Rembrant's Whore, and most recently The Madonnas of Leningrad

Anybody read Headlong by Michael Frayn? This novel features a lost Bruegel.

Have you read Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett? It's a young adult novel. There's also The Venetian's Wife by Nick Bantock and the The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher.

I have totally forgotten about The SHell Seekers...a blast from the past...I loved it tool.

RE Message #9:

I'm very fond of Chasing Vermeer, not least because parts of it are set in one of my favorite used book stores! Did you know that Balliett has a new one out (well, relatively). It's called The Wright 3 and centers around Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House.

Dorit in Lesbos by Toby Olson describes wonderful, though fictional, works of art that are heavily entwined with the plot.

hey i'm new here--new not only to the group, but to this whole genre of art-history which excites me like mad.
based on the recommendations and reviews, i've decided to start with "Girl in hyacinth blue"

suggestions, words of conversation, comments for a novice like me?
p.s. i'm also getting interested into Impressionist art.. mostly b/c i love the way the Impressionist artists capture prosaic strands of life. there's nothing overly lofty about it

Hi, I'm new to LibraryThing.com and new to this group, but I love art history and historical fiction, and sometimes they go together just wonderfully!

One recent book I've read that hasn't been listed is Caravaggio by Christopher Peachment. It's a take on the artist's infamous life through his own eyes, and includes lots of interesting views on his paintings and his life as a whole. Not so sure how much of the novel is the "historical" and how much is the "fiction," but it's a fun read, particularly for those who are interested in Baroque Italy.

Hope to be posting on this board more often!

Other than the history of human disease, THIS is my favoirte type of reading, my current favorites are The Sixteen Pleasures, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Girl in Hyacinth Blue, and The Madonnas of Leningrad.

I am traveling to vienna soon ant recomendations for reading about Art in Vienna?

> 15

I don't know of any fiction on the subject, but for non-fiction you might look at Jan Ernst Adlmann's Vienna Moderne, Kirk Varnedoe's Vienna 1900, or Peter Vergo's Art in Vienna.

I love books that include art, history and romance. Examples:
Girl with a Pearl Earring,The Lady and the Unicorn both by Tracy Chevalier
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
Tulip fever by Deborah Moggach
These are some of my favourites. Tell me what you think about them.

I too am a fan of Girl with a Pearl Earring (in fact, I bought a poster of the painting after reading the book).

There is an anthology called Immortal Unicorn edited by (who else?) Peter S. Beagle that includes a story that uses the unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters in NYC.

Nick Bantock's books are crammed full of art, his own and others. My favorites are the Griffin & Sabine trilogy (well, the first three books in the series) and The Venetian's Wife.

I love art in books/stories also.

Besides Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant and her In the company of the Courtesan also got started because of a painting the author found.

Leonardo's swans by Karen Essex is another but I thought it was only so so.

The illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease is good.

The Forest loverby Susan Vreeland has a lot of art in it also but I liked some of her other books
better.

Great idea for a group. I've been collecting in this area for the last several years and I look forward to reading the suggestions from the other group members. I also look for books with artists as a character. Even though the book may not focus on a work of art, I enjoy seeing how artists are portrayed.

Does anyone also collect movies? I do both and I am always very interested to see the movie interpretation of a book, some of which are good (e.g., Jacque Rivette's La Belle Noiseuse which was inspired from Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece) and some not so good (e.g., Uncovered, which is based on Arturo Perez-Reverte's the The Flander's Panel). La Belle Noiseuse is a long movie, but there is a shorter version called Divertimento.

I hope to post my collection soon and I hope we get more dialog going for this group!

Don't forget about The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone. Totally yummy reading for art lovers. Even though it's ficition, if you don't have a lot of art history in your background it's a must read before you visit Rome. I didn't have time to do too much "studying" before my last trip to Italy, but I did read this novel and it really helped me get so much more out of Michelangelo's works.

Anyone read the new release "The Great Man" by Kate Christensen? I just received a copy and hope to start reading it soon.

Hello. I just joined this group. The comments and recommendations are interesting.
RE: #21/FranklyMyDarling, I saw the movie and would love to read the book.

Has anyone in the group ever come across The Modigliani Scandal by Ken Follet? I got myself a copy (first edition, before it hit the bestsellers list) but gave it away as a birthday gift to a friend before I could open its pages. I have not yet replaced it since. Any comment on this best seller is appreciated (I am not much of a 'bestseller' reader). Thanks! - K Villa

Hi,
I'm new to the group, but I've been looking for one like this for a while. I love books about art and artists or musicians, both fiction and nonfiction.

I just finished The Wreck of the Medusa by Jonathan Miles - it's a non-fiction work that discusses both the history of the shipwreck and the Gericault painting that it inspired. I thought it was really readable even though I don't normally read much non-fiction. It's certainly worth taking a look at.

I have several that fall in this category on my TBR pile, so I'll be back as I discover more favorites!

Caramellunacy...I think a book called A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes has a chapter that deals with the same painting

Has anyone read Noah Charney's The Art Thief? It's part thriller (a bit like How to Steal A Million or The Thomas Crown Affair), but it also has some really interesting sections on art history - including some lectures by a really entertaining art professor character who definitely knows how to keep his students interested! I'm tempted to take the novel to the London National Gallery just to read those snippets in front of the paintings he discusses!

I enjoyed The Art Thief. It's pretty good. It's been a while since I read it but I remember it being a bit clumsy in its pacing in a few parts, but the story, background, and information in the book is fun and interesting. I'd recommend it to any art lovers.

I put it on my wishlist. I'm really enjoying that feature.

I've been working on The Swan Thieves for some time by Elizabeth Kostova. I almost gave up on it several times, but it's finally picked up a bit. I persisted because of the recommendation of a friend who runs an art supply store, so I'm glad I stuck with it.