Country 43 Spain – Blurb from goodreads.com, please scroll down for my review.
New York Times bestselling author Javier Sierra takes you on a grand tour of the Prado museum in this historical novel that illuminates the fascinating mysteries behind European art—complete with gorgeous, full-color inserts of artwork by da Vinci, Boticelli, and other master artists.
Presented as a fictionalized autobiography, The Master of Prado begins in Madrid in 1990, when Sierra encounters a mysterious stranger named Luis Fovel within the halls of the Prado. Fovel takes him on a whirlwind tour and promises to uncover startling secrets hidden in the museum’s masterpieces—secrets that open up a whole new world to Sierra.
The enigmatic Fovel reveals how a variety of visions, prophesies, conspiracies, and even heresies inspired masters such as Raphael, Titian, Hieronymus Bosch, Botticelli, Brueghel, and El Greco. The secrets they concealed in their paintings are stunning enough to change the way we think about art, uncovering mysteries about historical facts, secret sects, and prophetical theories. It is these secrets that lead Sierra to question his entire understanding of art history and unearth groundbreaking discoveries about European art.
At once a captivating novel and a beautifully illustrated reference guide to Madrid’s famed museum, The Master of the Prado is full of insights and intriguing mysteries. Sierra brings historical characters alive in this astounding narrative filled with dazzling surprises that will entrance you as much as the pictures within.
My Review
Quote: “You should know that there are only two ways to be alone. With no one near or in the middle of a crowd”.
Is this novel true? A memoir? Perhaps, fiction? Fantasy? Mystery? Maybe a bit of all of the above as the author has included an introduction detailing that it is true,based on his life, but…… I will let you decide, It might start out true, but as you read on…. Well, I am not so sure….
This novel is teaching you to see, to see what the painting is all about but not just that, it is also what the painting does not reveal. There are a few paintings detailed in the book with details of what was painted, where, when, etc.
There are so many footnotes that I imagine the research for this novel was intense, there are loads of details of the paintings mentioned, history, who commissioned it, where and when and lots more information. But the conversations with the Maestro Fovel were a little long and tedious, if they were shorter, maybe it would have been even better, not that I am saying the book is bad, it is actually quite good, written from the point of view of Javier Sierra himself, as I mentioned there is a bit of memoir here and Javier is the main protagonist.
The visit and details of El Escorial were my favourite part, and my least favourite part were the long conversations, if only they were a little shorter…..
I read some reviews and most of them mention a comparison with Dan Brown, well, in my opinion, get that out of your head, this had nothing to do with Dan Brown, so very different indeed,
This book would have gotten 5 stars except for the tedious parts mentioned above, so I give this book 4 stars.
I can recommend this book to people who are interested in art and want to know more about the paintings mentioned in the book.
The enxt book/country is The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler, Charlotte Collins (Translator) (Austria)
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