History calls her a Muse. Temptress. Fallen woman.
This is her story.
It’s 1636 and Rome hums with gossip and sin. Costanza Piccolomini is a respectable young wife – until she meets world-famous sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, whose jet-black gaze matches his dark temper. From the second they set eyes upon each other, a fatal attraction is born.
Their secret love burns with a passion that consumes them. But with every stolen kiss and illicit tryst, Costanza’s reputation is at stake. And Bernini has a more dangerous desire: he wants to immortalise Costanza in marble. When Bernini unveils his sculpture of Costanza it marks the beginning of a scandal which will rock Roman society. For Bernini would rather destroy Costanza than let her go.
Betrayed. Abandoned. Banished. This was meant to be the end of Costanza’s story. But Costanza is no ordinary woman: from the ashes, she will rise …
Costanza is a dizzying and sensual historical novel that brings to life a feminist icon who has been written out of history.
Based on real-life events, Costanza’s love affair, and subsequent downfall at the hands of one of the world’s best-known artists, foreshadows modern-day violence against women. Examining themes of male rage and female transgression, the plotline is based on the ‘Intimate Partner Homicide Timeline’ used by police today – the eight identifiable stages of escalation to violence all of us should be able to recognise.
Born in Birmingham, Rachel spent her childhood in the Northeast, then the Midlands. She studied history at King’s College London, where her fascination for women’s history took root. After a brief stint in politics, Rachel built a career in corporate communications. In 2021, she was runner-up in the Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Competition and won the Irish Writers Centre 2022 Novel Fair. Rachel lives in London with her three teenagers, two cats and one dog.
My thoughts: Lorenzo Bernini is widely regarded as an artistic genius, one of incredible creative minds that Renaissance Italy produced. However, in this version of events, he was also a nasty, jealous piece of shit. As was his brother.
Costanza Piccolomini is married to one of the artisans who works for the Berninis, and she catches the eye of Lorenzo. They begin an intense affair and Lorenzo’s envious, violent younger brother takes a keen interest.
Costanza is intelligent, fiery and a bit of a social climber, but she and her husband could do OK even without the patronage of the Berninis. But instead she becomes drawn into their orbit and the bitter rivalry between the brothers.
The author has used the pattern of escalation used by the police to track intimate partner homicides, where events escalate from controlling behaviour to, sadly, often murder. Costanza’s life is a matter of public record, scant though it is, a chapter in Lorenzo Berlini’s biography. But here she is brought vividly back to life, a real woman at risk from violent and cruel men in a society that saw sin and not harm.
I found the concept fascinating and clever. So many women’s lives historically would probably be understood completely differently if viewed through this lens, or any of our more recent understanding of humanity.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
