From Publishers Weekly
The quest to possess beauty drives this debut historical novel, which borrows from the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, a gifted painter of the Italian Renaissance who was one of the first women to gain recognition as an artist in her own right. Holdstock's heroine is Sofonisba, daughter of the painter Orazio Fabroni. At 17, Sofonisba is taking on more and more of her father's work, attempting to cultivate her own talent. Her passions are aroused by the scruffy, swashbuckling sculptor Matteo Tassi, whose wandering and carefree ways suit her independent nature. When an exotic slave with freakish, piebald skin enters the lives of these artists, their fascination with the slave as an object of both beauty and repulsion sets off a spiraling chain of events that leads many to believe the girl is a curse upon the town. The book's exploration of passion, jealousy and ambition is underlaid by riveting, macabre descriptions of human dissections witnessed by its artist protagonists. Holdstock's vivid, unflinching tale doesn't sugarcoat the casual brutality of the period, and is punctuated by startling moments of beauty. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Holdstock's novel borrows heavily from the story of Florentine painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Like Artemisia, Sofonisba, the daughter of a successful artist, is herself a brilliant painter but generally disregarded because she is a woman. As Holdstock tells it, Sofonisba is the creator of two of Artemisia's masterpieces, Susanna and the Elders and Judith Beheading Holofernes. Her intense relationship with a sculptor named Matteo Tassi leads to a bitter contest of wills and Tassi's trial for rape, also drawn from Artemisia's life. Holdstock throws many other characters into her rich mix, including an artist with a Leonardo-like curiosity about the human form and a slave girl whose unusual appearance causes others to consider her bad luck. Although plot and character development generally take a backseat to setting, the novel teems with the sights, sounds, and smells of Medici Florence and convincingly portrays the lives of professional artists at the time. Give this to readers who enjoyed Sarah Dunant's The Birth of Venus (2003). Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
A dark and sublime tale of art and love, science and nature in Renaissance Italy. Loosely based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, A Rare and Curious Gift tells the story of Sofonisba, a brilliant painter gradually taking over her father's studio. Determined to avoid the depredations of men, she is fighting her own intensely erotic attraction to Matteo Tassi—sculptor, goldsmith, notorious and irresistible rogue. Then a young female slave, her skin strangely mottled by nature, enters their lives and those of their friends. The fascination of these artists and scientists with the exotic creature in their midst—often cruel, sometimes humane—inevitably alters their relationship with one another and the world around them forever. Through this fearless story of utterly convincing human passions, Pauline Holdstock paints a rich, beautifully textured portrait of the Italian Renaissance and its material and spiritual visions of human nature. Like Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower and Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring, this is wonderfully sophisticated entertainment.


About the Author
Pauline Holdstock lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A dark and sublime tale of art and love, science and nature in Renaissance Italy.

Loosely based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, A Rare and Curious Gift tells the story of Sofonisba, a brilliant painter gradually taking over her father's studio. Determined to avoid the depredations of men, she is fighting her own intensely erotic attraction to Matteo Tassi—sculptor, goldsmith, notorious and irresistible rogue. Then a young female slave, her skin strangely mottled by nature, enters their lives and those of their friends. The fascination of these artists and scientists with the exotic creature in their midst—often cruel, sometimes humane—inevitably alters their relationship with one another and the world around them forever.

Through this fearless story of utterly convincing human passions, Pauline Holdstock paints a rich, beautifully textured portrait of the Italian Renaissance and its material and spiritual visions of human nature. Like Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower and Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring, this is wonderfully sophisticated entertainment.

Author Biography: Pauline Holdstock lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.

FROM THE CRITICS

Suzy Hansen - The New York Times

The festival of San Giovanni is what brings them all together, but it is Chiara, disarming them with her apparent freakishness, who almost destroys them (as well as much of Florence, it seems). At the center of the story, though, is the relationship of Sofonisba and Matteo, whose tragic combustion of love and lust, according to Holdstock, forms the emotional basis for Sofonisba's great painting. By the end of A Rare and Curious Gift, we do finally feel that we understand both Sofonisba and Chiara. But it's Chiara who conjures up the most moving scene in the book when she impetuously frees Paolo's collection of caged animals, leaving (fittingly enough) just one behind.

Publishers Weekly

The quest to possess beauty drives this debut historical novel, which borrows from the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, a gifted painter of the Italian Renaissance who was one of the first women to gain recognition as an artist in her own right. Holdstock's heroine is Sofonisba, daughter of the painter Orazio Fabroni. At 17, Sofonisba is taking on more and more of her father's work, attempting to cultivate her own talent. Her passions are aroused by the scruffy, swashbuckling sculptor Matteo Tassi, whose wandering and carefree ways suit her independent nature. When an exotic slave with freakish, piebald skin enters the lives of these artists, their fascination with the slave as an object of both beauty and repulsion sets off a spiraling chain of events that leads many to believe the girl is a curse upon the town. The book's exploration of passion, jealousy and ambition is underlaid by riveting, macabre descriptions of human dissections witnessed by its artist protagonists. Holdstock's vivid, unflinching tale doesn't sugarcoat the casual brutality of the period, and is punctuated by startling moments of beauty. (Feb.) Forecast: Holdstock's novel may suffer from following on the heels of Susan Vreeland's The Passion of Artemisia (2001). It holds its own, however, and should appeal to readers looking for a darker version of the female-centered historical fiction patented by Vreeland and Chevalier. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews