Perspectives by Laurent Binet

Laurent Binet loves playing historical games. His last book Civilisations, imagined what would have happened if the Aztecs conquered Europe rather than the other way around. His latest book Perspectives (translated from the French by Sam Taylor) starts with what can only be called a classic conceit. The author has gone into an antiquarian shop and discovered a trove of correspondence which, when run together, tells the most amazing tale. The how and why anyone person would have gotten hold of all of this correspondence and then put it together in this order is a question left unasked, mainly because it is unanswerable and would spoil the illusion. And the illusion is all that matters as Binet spins a wild and raucous tale of skullduggery in 16th century Florence.

It is 1557 and the artist Jacopo da Pontormo is found dead next his frescoes in a church in Florence. The ruler of Florence, Cosimo I dé Medici, tasks artist and art historian, Giorgio Vasari to investigate. Both Vasari and Pontormo, and others, were students of Michelangelo, who himself is in Rome overseeing the construction of St Paul’s. While Vasari’s investigation proceeds a number of other events are taking place. Pontormo had produced a painting of Venus and Cupid but scandalously used the face of Maria, the 17 year old daughter of Cosimo Medici. Maria’s aunt, Catherine dé Medici, the queen of France, is trying to secure the painting to embarrass Cosimo. Maria herself is promised in marriage but has fallen for a courtier who seeks to spirit her away. And in another thread, Pontormo’s colour grinder Marco Moro is trying to organise workers who support these artists into a type of proto-union.

As can be seen from that precis, there is a lot going on in Perspectives. And it is all told through a series of letters between the various characters (a cast listed at the beginning that is much larger than that mentioned above including artist and rogue Benvenuto Cellini and an artistic nun). There is plenty of thematic heft here. There is the dispute about the nature of art and the use of nudes in particular which were starting to be frowned upon and covered over at the order of the new Pope, there is the question of perspective itself in art, there are considerations of privilege and entitlement, how far people will go to protect what they personally believe is sacrosanct. But Perspectives is no Name of the Rose, as it also more than a bit of a romp – with sword fights, secret agents, elopement, battles and natural disasters. Binet uses increasingly short messages to increase the pace of the narrative when he needs to.

Renaissance Florence is itself having a bit of a renaissance on the crime front. With DV Bishop’s Cesar Aldo crime series set in the first years of the reign of Cosimo I de Medici. And now with Perspectives an erudite murder mystery with plenty more story happening around the investigation and a surprising conclusion.

Perspectives by Laurent Binet

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8.0/10