It is my absolute delight to welcome author Amy Maroney back to the blog. Amy's new release is called Sea of Shadows and once again she's taking us to Medieval Rhodes. Over to you, Amy:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While we rarely hear about women artists working during the medieval and Renaissance eras, they did exist. Though their work was often made anonymously or attributed to the fathers, brothers, and husbands they worked with, we can sometimes find traces of these women in tax rolls and wills. My new novel, Sea of Shadows, stars Anica Foscolo, a gifted woman artist who is the talent behind the oil portraits and frescoes made by her father’s workshop on the island of Rhodes in Renaissance-era Greece. Anica is fictional, but she was inspired by real women.
In 13th-14th century Paris, for example, women made up about 10 to 15 percent of all taxed individuals. This number included artisans, widows, business owners—any female earning her own taxable income. Illuminators and embroiderers showed up frequently on the tax rolls, as did silk-weavers, brocaders, and textile finishers. Women were accepted into many trade guilds of the time, usually via family members, but some trades had free entry and accepted all who met their requirements.
 |
| Medieval Woman Painting a Woman, by Giovanni Boccaccio, French National Library |
These women mostly worked in obscurity, but there are some examples of women who worked in family art studios and became renowned painters in their own right. Golden Age artist Artemisia Gentileschi is probably the biggest star among them. Her father taught her to paint. She went on to establish her own art studio, securing commissions by wealthy merchants and nobles during her 17th-century career.
My first historical fiction series, the story of a Renaissance-era female artist and the modern day scholar on her trail, featured a fictional woman painter named Miramonde de Oto. She was based on the real artist Caterina van Hemessen, who worked with her father in his Flanders studio, churning out portraits of wealthy patrons as well as a mesmerizing self-portrait, which she signed.
 |
| Caterina Van Hemessen, Public Domain Image |
One of my favorite artists of the Early Modern era is Clara Peeters, master of the still-life painting. She often hid her name or self-portrait within her paintings, which is a trick my fictional artists deploy as well. I love the idea of women artists claiming their work in sly ways, sending a message to viewers decades or centuries in the future. How many more of them are waiting to be found?
 |
| Clare Peeters, Self-portrait, Pubic Domain Image |
It’s a question that haunts me. I was thrilled to learn recently of a female artist, Agnes van den Bossche, who was a member of the Ghent, Flanders, artists’ guild for over three decades during the 15th century. Her father and brother were master painters. For her part, Agnes painted mostly on cloth. Her only known surviving work is a banner she was commissioned to produce for the city of Ghent.
 |
| The Banner, Image: Wikimedia Commons |
Agnes is that rare person—a woman artist of the late medieval/early Renaissance era whose story survives. Most of her contemporaries are lost to history, their voices and legacies relegated to the shadows. As a writer who specializes in stories about forgotten women artists, I hold up Agnes as evidence that the artists I create in my fiction are based on real women, not just my imagination.
With my new Sea and Stone Chronicles series, I wanted to focus on unsung, unknown women like Agnes van den Bossche. For every Agnes we can point to in the historical record, there must be hundreds who are lost to history. Women who had every bit as much talent as their male counterparts–and, in some cases, more—but were never acknowledged.
Sea of Shadows, the second book in this series of stand-alone romantic historical suspense novels, stars an unlikely duo. Anica Foscolo, a gifted painter on the Greek island of Rhodes, is the daughter of a Venetian artist and a Greek woman. Drummond Fordun is a fierce Scotsman renowned for his exploits as a privateer serving the Knights Hospitaller of St. John, who are headquartered on Rhodes. When her family’s honor is threatened, Anica reluctantly turns to Drummond for help. There’s just one problem: she never planned to fall in love with her accomplice.
Like Island of Gold, its predecessor in the Sea and Stone Chronicles, Sea of Shadows explores the shadowy world of the Mediterranean during a time of adventure, war, prosperity, and risk.
 |
| The Colossus of Rhodes - Public Domain Image |
Artists and artisans exploited the wealth in Rhodes Town under the rule of the Knights Hospitaller, setting up studios and workshops within the walled city. Gold-beaters, jewelers, textile workers, stoneworkers, and painters were among the creative classes. Italian-trained artists were commissioned by the knights to create frescoes and paintings for their private residences and for chapels and churches on the island. At the same time, the astounding layers of history in Rhodes offered opportunities for entrepreneurs to sell artifacts to collectors from Italy, who traveled to the island seeking treasures for wealthy patrons.
My heroine Anica Foscolo, the unsung talent behind her father’s dazzling portraits, is a product of her environment, and as such she embodies the conflicting loyalties of her time and place. She’s Venetian (not always an advantage for a citizen living under the rule of the Genoa-loving Knights Hospitaller), but she’s also Greek (and, as such, seen as subservient by the Knights Hospitaller).
Rhodes under the rule of the knights was a goldmine of adventure, scandal, love, and divided loyalties, offering rich fodder for a historical novelist. Though I never found evidence of a woman artist working in Rhodes at the time, there was plenty of evidence about male artists who prospered there. So I created Anica in homage to women working in family studios who never made it into the historical record. She gives a voice to the silenced stories of the past—and serves as a reminder that the historical record is full of holes just waiting to be filled.
1459. A gifted woman artist. A ruthless Scottish privateer. And an audacious plan that throws them together—with dangerous consequences.
No one on the Greek island of Rhodes suspects Anica is responsible for her Venetian father’s exquisite portraits, least of all her wealthy fiancé. But her father’s vision is failing, and with every passing day it’s more difficult to conceal the truth.
When their secret is discovered by a powerful knight of the Order of St. John, Anica must act quickly to salvage her father’s honor and her own future. Desperate, she enlists the help of a fierce Scottish privateer named Drummond. Together, they craft a daring plan to restore her father’s sight.
There’s only one problem—she never imagined falling in love with her accomplice.
About the author:
.jpeg)
Amy Maroney studied English Literature at Boston University and worked for many years as a writer and editor of nonfiction. She lives in Oregon, U.S.A. with her family. When she’s not diving down research rabbit holes, she enjoys hiking, dancing, traveling, and reading. Amy is the author of The Miramonde Series, an award-winning historical fiction trilogy about a Renaissance-era female artist and the modern-day scholar on her trail. Her new historical suspense/romance series, Sea and Stone Chronicles, is set in medieval Rhodes and Cyprus.
Social Media Links:
