I thought I’d switch up so I decided to do some different book reviews for Italian history and Italian art history.

 

My first review!

~spoilers~

So…The Night Portrait. I have a lot of thoughts here.

While I can’t speak much about this book’s historical accuracy, I found a good amount of sections captivating, and learned about many things for the first time, like the Monuments Men. I appreciated Morelli’s emphasis on sacrificing comfort and security for art. That people like the Monuments Men, who risked their lives “just for art,” were protecting the beauty we live for in the first place.

So the book’s sentiment did resonate with me. However, especially with Dominic’s character, I felt the message sometimes went a little overboard. The reader understood the significance of art the first few times it was acknowledged. I felt like this idea could have been more so “shown, not told.” (I know you’re groaning, but the expression applies here)

There are only so many ways you can say “art is worth living for,” and Morelli certainly found all of them.

I also found myself struggling to sympathize with any particular person. Not because they were bad, but because they bordered on boring.

It made me wish some of them were bad, actually.

I felt like this may have been because there weren’t a whole lot of new motivations for any of them added throughout the book. Their personalities and desires in the beginning of the novel were more or less the same when it ended. This resulted in a lot of waiting… dragging…and waiting some more for something to happen. I felt a little bit exhausted and unsatisfied when things came to a close.

A lot of the middle could have been cut out, especially in Dominic’s and Edith’s parts. Much of their sections didn’t serve the novel anything besides slowing its pace down. I think this could have been partly solved if the two met sooner. The middle sections also could have been more interesting if Edith had more interactions with other female characters, particularly Bridgitte Frank.

We don’t see her interact with other women very much, really only with her father’s nurse. But the glimpses of interactions between Bridgette and Edith only left me wanting more, and had me wanting Morelli to explore the fashion of both her and Beatrice, since fashion had such a strong influence in Italian society.

The novel is broken up into different sections by character, so I organized the review in a similar way.

Starting with Edith, the main character.

(I was disappointed it wasn’t Da Vinci, too.)

I know we’re supposed to resonate with Edith, and sympathize with her for “losing” her dad (in a sense) and losing Heinrich. However, since we know so little about both characters, especially Heinrich, Edith’s connections to the outside world seem a bit lackluster. I don’t see much development of her feelings throughout the novel. Each time I got to her section, I felt like I was stuck reading the same girl saying the same thing. I did love how she was able to come full circle in her resistance against Hans Frank. I just think the journey to get there could have been executed in a more interesting way.

The blurriness of the “outside” characters in Edith’s life could’ve been done to show that her true love in life is art, which I understand, but I still needed a stronger connection to her loved ones, specifically Heinrich.

Like….Hello? How exactly do they complement each other? What do we actually know about Heinrich? I didn’t feel much of their connection, and as a result, there was undeniably more chemistry between Edith and Dominic.

I understand Heinrich was sweet with Edith’s dad…but “sweet” isn’t much to connect with when you have multiple other characters with more interests and goals swimming around.

This all just made me want her to be with Dominic….

……No, I don’t think he should have cheated on Sally.

BUT…. then again….WHY are we given so little information about Sally?! All we really know about her is that she is beautiful, has children, and has curves.

This leaves me asking, what are we supposed to latch onto in Dominic and Sally’s relationship? What are we supposed to hope for?

We see Dominic and Edith interact much more than we see either of them interact with their partners, so it is confusing to me. I ended up not really rooting for anyone at all, and wondered what the point of the flittering interest between them even was.

Speaking of Dominic…

It was hard for me to nail down his personality.

We know he’s brave, loves his family and art, and is good at drawing. But I feel like his dedication to art in terms of the war seemed to teeter; his love evolved and crumbled quickly and pretty often, so I never felt truly confident on where he stood. At the end, of course, he professes and confirms his love for art and Sally, but the road to get there didn’t feel like it developed, but more so winded in a way I didn’t fully get.

At most points, it feels like Dominic’s character is only there to justify why learning about art history is important, and why it’s worth fighting for. Which is fine, because it does put things into perspective sometimes in terms of the war, but at the same time, the reader wouldn’t be reading this far if they didn’t think art history is important. And like I said in the introduction of this review, this message was spelled out so many times, I almost found myself rolling my eyes when I read that art was worth fighting for again and again. Why was it weirdly renegged so many times? For the sake of being dynamic? I’m not sure.

Either way, frankly, (no pun intended) Dominic’s sections were the most boring. I found myself taking breaks the most during them.

I will say, though, that I liked how Dominic switched back to the front lines for a little, it broke up the monotony a bit.

Finally, the sections with Cecilia and Da Vinci are much shorter, which was kind of sad because I found them the most fascinating. I felt I was more able to escape into their world.

Cecilia

I feel a strong connection to Cecilia. Because we’re supposed to. She is the night portrait after all.

And I know naivety is, like, her thing. But girl. Get it together.

I always felt like I wanted more for her than what she wanted from herself. All she wants is Lorenzo for almost the entire novel. Lorenzo? The man we all hate? It just wasn’t very easy to sympathize with.

Similarly to Edith, I wish that Cecilia had more interactions with Beatrice to show more about her personality.

I understand that in those times, the route Cecilia took was the way for women to become successful or powerful, but it’s just crazy to me that she can have that many talents and interests, and wanted to use it all for Lorenzo.

Overall, the dialogue between her and Da Vinci was my favorite. He understood her wisdom and talent more than Lorenzo, so they had a mutual respect and understanding of each other. I also feel like I learned the most about Italian history/Italian art history within these sections.

 

Da Vinci

Although he is featured the least, Da Vinci’s sections had the most emotional impact on me. This might have been because they were the only ones written in first person, so I felt more connected to his thoughts.

I really enjoyed how a lot of his parts got into the minute details of his painting process. Like the way he painted with his thumb,and how he decided to make Lady With an Ermine the first painting where a mistress was drawn not for status, but for how she looked in life.

Da Vinci’s sections sparkled with an innocent warmth between him and Cecilia. His inner thoughts are poised and intelligent but also somehow approachable, creating an atmosphere where you feel like you can speak to him through the pages.

So even though I have no idea what he was like IRL, Morelli nailed a well developed character voice and spirit.

I think the emphasis on his lowly craftsman position helps. You are able to see him before his absolute superstardom, which charmingly humbles him. I think we fully trusted him when we find out that Cecilia is alive and did not die in childbirth, through his character, on page 335.

The serene nature between the reader and Da Vinci is disrupted by a really interesting contrast, when we see the inner workings of his insanely destructive war machines, on the next page.

So if you couldn’t tell by now, Da Vinci’s character carries this book…. in my book.

Wrapping Up … (thoughts that didn’t fit anywhere else)

 

I noticed that Morelli tried to garner reader sympathy through elders a lot with characters like Edith’s father and Vicar Stephany. I assume the images of them helpless and curled up in a corner were meant to emphasize the bravery of those fighting for them. Maybe this was done to parallel the soldier’s inner selves, who are that same curled up, vulnerable person inside.

So.

While I liked the book, it’s more of a half-baked “like.”

I didn’t really like it,

I definitely didn’t love it,

and I can’t exactly say I’d recommend it to you either.

The most interesting parts were about history, and I would recommend learning about the Monuments Men, Da Vinci, and Lady With an Ermine through another medium. Doing so will spare you the waiting, dragging, and subsequent waiting I was telling you about.

I will also say I was not expecting my critique on this book to be this harsh, but I can’t stress enough that it was just mundane.

The characters didn’t quite come to life, or develop completely. I did see development in Edith, because she was able to be a resistance to the Nazi regime. But the journey there was tedious, and I honestly don’t think the payoff was worth it.

I was really hoping to see a lot more of Da Vinci’s personality shine, but all of the sections he was in basically centered around Cecilia, who like I said earlier, was hard to sympathize with, since all she wanted to use her talents on was Lorenzo.

And I’m a very emotional person, but didn’t really feel an emotional tie to any one person like I was hoping. I will say I did tear up at the end when Dominic saw Edith’s father, and needed to put the book down for a second to collect my thoughts.

So if we are just judging this book on character development, and overall character interest, I would rate it a 2 out of 5. I would then give it a 3 out of 5 just based on what I learned about art history.

I’m not the best at math, but I think that makes my “The Night Portrait” rating:

2.5/5

A book I think did a superior job of switching between character perspectives, and using each section to move along development seamlessly, is “My Sweet Girl” by Amanda Jayatissa. The subjects of the book have nothing to do with one another, but when I compared the two, I really just realized how slowly this book moved along.

Well, thanks for reading!

Laura Morelli, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry.

I’ll see you again in my review of “Bella Figura” by Kamin Mohammadi.