The Botticelli Secret
The Botticelli Secret is a 2010 historical-mystery-detective novel written by Marina Fiorato in the vein of code adventures such as The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Set in the 15th century throughout the Italian states, the protagonists are part-time model and full-time prostitute Luciana Vetra and monk Father Guido della Torre as they are thrown together in Florence and chased across the country through the likes of Venice, Milan and Rome. The title of the novel refers to a conspiracy that Luciana has stumbled across, and a code in the famous painting La Primavera by Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli.
Plot summary
In 15th-century Italy, Luciana Vetra is young and beautiful, with long, golden hair. She is a full-time whore and a part-time model. When her best client asks her to pose as the goddess Flora for a painting, Luciana complies until the artist abruptly sends her away without payment. Luciana angrily takes the unfinished painting, but someone is ready to kill her and people she knows to get the painting back.As friends and clients are murdered around her, Luciana turns to Guido della Torre, a novice at the monastery of Santa Croce. They flee together through the nine great cities of Renaissance Italy, trying to decode the painting's secrets before their enemies catch up with them.
Secret of ''La Primavera''
Woven into the novel like a Dan Brown code, Fiorato analyzes the painting and pulls out each of the characters that Botticelli created—not just to be seen as individuals, but as whole too. Many Renaissance academics share the same belief as Fiorato that there is a code in the painting, and its true meaning is revealed at the end of the novel - lifting a conspiracy that would last until the 19th century.Marina Fiorato gained special permission from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence to use the image of La Primavera, and many editions published contain the painting's image to help the reader decipher the code.