The Giant: A Historical Novel About A Renaissance Artist With Imposter Syndrome

Jacqueline M. Howard, art historian and author Laura Morelli's assistant, invited me to do a Q&A with Laura Morelli for two of her upcoming novels.   This Q & A will eventually appear on this blog.   The first of the 2020 Morelli novels, The Giant,  has already been released at the beginning of June, but I didn't have an opening in my schedule to read and review it until now.

I reviewed Laura Morelli's earlier book, The Painter's Apprentice, on Flying High Reviews (FHR) here because that novel is consistent with FHR's  focus on strong female central characters.  The Giant is told from the perspective of a male protagonist.  This is why I am blogging about it on Shomeret: Masked Reviewer where I review anything that interests me.    The Night Portrait is the 2020 Laura Morelli novel that won't be released until September.  I am still awaiting a digital ARC of that book from Net Galley.  I expect to review it on FHR because it has two female protagonists, then follow it up with the Q&A on both books.

          

 

  Since I had actually pre-ordered The Giant before Jacqueline Howard contacted me, I received access to all the marvelous bonus materials that Laura Morelli made available to all those who pre-ordered.   After finishing The Giant, I  read through all that additional material which provided me with more topics for this review.

The Giant is the story of how Michelangelo's David came to be.  Creating an image of  a shepherd boy from a huge block of marble appears to be an effort to make David as physically formidable as his giant opponent, Goliath.

In the Master Class video about this novel, Morelli discusses how this statue was meant to be a symbol of the city of Florence which wanted to be considered the equal of giants like Rome. 

My perception of David as a Biblical figure is that he has always been political.  When he became King of Israel, David established a dynasty.  The stories that are told about him are intended to glorify that dynasty descended from the tribe of Judah which became royalty among the Jews from then on.  David represents the people of Israel.   The particular story of David versus Goliath symbolizes the victory of a small powerless people over their enemies.   This is the way Jews have always seen themselves to this day. I am speaking as  someone who grew up being told that I was a descendant of David.  He is at the center of my cultural heritage.  I understand that Christianity adopted David along with all the rest of the figures of the Hebrew Bible.  So he became a hero of the Western world.  Then through the power of Michelangelo's creation Florence claimed him.  Yet David and Goliath was born as a political story in the Bible.

I loved learning from Laura Morelli's Master Class that Michelangelo's David was placed where the ascetic Savonarola's Bonfire of the Vanities took place.  So many works of art were destroyed there.  We will never be able to experience them, but Michelangelo's David can be said to represent the victory of art over Savonarola's fanaticism.

One of the questions for book clubs dealing with The Giant asks readers about their favorite character in this book.  Initially, my favorite character was Lucia, the sister of  the  artist protagonist Jacopo Torni.  Jacopo actually existed, but Laura Morelli gave him some pretty serious problems in her novel.  I was angry at Jacopo for causing Lucia so much anxiety, and preventing her from getting on with her life.  She felt she had to take care of Jacopo, and I wondered if he was worth her sacrifice.  Jacopo was actually feeling the same way because he suffered from Imposter Syndrome.  Being a friend of Michelangelo  caused him to think that he could never measure up.  Lucia was certain that Jacopo's problems went much deeper.   After a while, I started seeing a pattern that suggested to me that Jacopo, as portrayed by Laura Morelli, was what we would call bipolar.  After reading the entire book I was no longer sure that he really was bipolar, but he was certainly an addictive personality which led him into repetitive acts of self-destructive behavior.

Laura Morelli  also caused me to examine Michelangelo's psyche as well. If Michelangelo's barrier to working with others  was a psychological limitation,  could it be that this great artist would have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder if he'd lived in our contemporary world?  This seemed to me at least possible.

The historical personage that I felt was portrayed most negatively in The Giant was Leonardo Da Vinci. This true Renaissance Man, in both senses of the term, would have been considered a towering genius in any era.  Yet in this novel he's shown as a cold, arrogant and intolerant individual.  This doesn't offend me at all.   It seemed to me that Laura Morelli's version of Da Vinci condemned sculpture and sculptors as inferior because he didn't have  Michelangelo's supreme skill in that area, and it made him feel insecure.   He probably set extremely high expectations for himself.   If he wasn't able to excel at sculpture by his own standards, then he had to convince himself that sculpture simply wasn't of any real value.  It's sad when someone feels the need to tear down others in order to feel good about himself, but it's very human. 

This leads me to Laura Morelli's video "What's The Difference Between Art and Craft?"that was included in the bonus content. I agree with the idea that this is a false distinction. I would assume that the illumination of books that Jacopo's father and Lucia did was probably considered a decorative craft rather than art by those who established the art versus craft ideology during this time period.  I did get the feeling that Jacopo's father was generally respected.  So perhaps the view that crafts were inferior to art was starting to take hold, but wasn't that well established during the period when The Giant took place.  

My grandmother did crewel embroidery.   Nobody in my family considered her an artist, but I saw her work displayed on the walls of her apartment when I was child. I thought it was absolutely awesome.  I didn't care whether crewel embroidery was an art or a craft.  I just thought it was beautiful.

This review touches on some of the themes that arose from my reading of  The Giant and the supplemental materials that form its background.  If my perspective is in some ways different from Laura Morelli's, it is because Michelangelo's David is an icon with enough depth that it can be variously interpreted.  It is also true that each book is different for every reader.  I hope that readers of this blog who go on to read The Giant will be repaid with their own unique insights on the ideas and characters they encounter in the pages of this book.