PB RRP $23.95
ISBN 9781896580050
Reviewed by Marian
McGuinness
The blurb on the
back cover hooked me in as soon as I read it.
Fifteen-year-old Beppo, an
indentured servant in Rome, is accused of murder. The only person who can help
him is one of the most celebrated artists of his day – Caravaggio.
Straight away I
had the scenario for this Young Adult novel in my mind: two protagonists - a
teenager on the run and a Renaissance artist. I was quickly swept into the
intrigue of medieval Italy.
Beppo’s mother has
died and he is indentured to a man with ‘the rough chiselled face of an
unfinished statue … a bloated pig of a master,’ who is in the wine trade - a
cover for the darker and illegal book trade.
When Beppo’s
master is murdered, Beppo is accused. He escapes the ‘polizia’ with the help of
an acrobatic dwarf.
While on the run
through the backstreets of Rome, where children gamble and play archaic games
of tennis, Beppo stumbles into a street brawl. Caravaggio is defending himself
with a sword and mortally wounds his opponent.
Now two are on the
run. With the help of Caravaggio’s patron, the Cardinal, they escape to Naples.
Pursued by bounty hunters, Beppo is exiled from Rome and Caravaggio is given
the death penalty.
While this is a
fast-paced story of bandits, crossbows, swords, pirates and prison breaks, it
is also the story of how the great artists of the Renaissance worked. Beppo
becomes Caravaggio’s servant and learns of his craft as he purchases supplies
of ‘linen canvas and wood slats from the shipyard; chalk and walnut oil from
the apothecary; lead white from the smith; pigments from the dyer; and an
assortment of mirrors …’ Such detail adds layers of richness to the bones of
the narrative where, for the painting of a Lazarus scene, a dead body is
delivered – ‘A loosely wrapped corpse lay within. The linen shroud afforded a
glimpse of papery, grey skin.’
Caravaggio also
teaches Beppo about the finer arts of swordplay ‘thumb down, in, up, out’,
which stands him in good stead as he learns the skills needed to become a
squire and later, perhaps, a knight.
Just like
Shakespeare’s Renaissance play, Romeo and Juliet, with its swordplay and feisty
youth, Beppo falls in love with Dolcetta, the daughter of a courtesan. There’s
even a balcony-climbing scene where the forbidden romance culminates in Beppo
‘kissing her on the lips.’
With its twenty
short chapters, first person point of view and smattering of Italian words,
teenage readers will feel at one with the character of Beppo. A bit like asides in a play, Beppo’s innermost
thoughts are written in italics. This also keeps the reader in the moment and
within the action.
Author, Mark David
Smith, has written a swashbuckling novel that is sure to win the imaginations
of teen readers. As a form of epilogue, Smith provides historical notes about
Caravaggio. What a wonderful foray into life in medieval Italy. Indeed, I would
like to see this Italy that Smith has painted with such vivid imagery.
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