Writings On Art & Artists
THE ROLE & INFLUENCE OF ART IN MY FICTION --- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH CAROLE CRAM OF ART IN FICTION
I have published four historical novels: The Etruscan, Katherine's Wish, Signatures in Stone, and Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne. All four books deal with artists or writers of the early 20th century, three were inspired by my encounters with Italian art, and all four explore how we live beyond time through the arts.
My first novel,THE ETRUSCAN , tells the story of Harriet Sacket, a trouser-wearing photographer who travels to Italy in 1922 to document Etruscan tomb art for the Theosophical Society. In Italy, Harriet meets her nemesis and soul-twin, Count Federigo del Re, who claims to be descended from the Etruscans and would seem to possess psychic powers, including healing, dowsing, and more. This novel was inspired by my long familiarity with the Etruscan area north of Rome where I have lived for over thirty years, and by rambles in the woods of Tuscia and Tuscany, my investigations of Etruscan ruins in the countryside, and my studies of local myths and superstitions. First published in Ireland and now out of print, The Etruscan was republished in the US in 2024
SIGNATURES IN STONE. A BOMARZO MYSTERY , winner of the Daphne Du Maurier Award in 2013 for best suspense novel, is set in the same Etruscan area as my first novel, a region nestled between Rome and Florence. The specific location is the Sacred Grove of Bomarzo, a 16th-century sculpture park that is a thirty-minute drive from my home and populated with bizarre sculptures that are believed to contain references to alchemy. The identity of the artist who designed the sculptures is unknown, although there are many theories. I came away from my first visit years ago deeply puzzled by the eerie atmosphere and monstrous figures, which act strangely upon the unconscious mind. The Sacred Grove has been interpreted as a representation of a mythic journey through hell to redemption, as a pagan path of initiation, and as a reenactment of dreams. But it has also been compared to a picture book hewn in stone, in which each visitor is both reader and character. After several visits to the place, during which I attuned myself to the atmosphere, my research and my impressions fused together to make a storyline.
In my novel, the heroine, Daphne DuBlanc, arrives in Bomarzo in 1928 to work on her new mystery novel while staying with friends in a decrepit, aristocratic villa. Their pleasant vacation is soon interrupted by a series of crimes and murders, and Daphne finds herself first a victim and then a suspect. Daphne believes in "signatures" – signs in our environment which help us foresee the future and uncover buried truths. She must read the signs around her to name the murderer. Whereas The Etruscan deals with folk beliefs and rural traditions, Signatures in Stone is interwoven with references to Renaissance magic, alchemy, and their connections to art. In both novels, sculptures and other artworks are potent messengers of a liminal reality that is concealed by everyday perceptions.
Katherine's Wish focuses on the last five years of Katherine Mansfield's life. Ill with tuberculosis, she travels across Europe, seeking a cure while struggling to keep on writing. Her introduction to Gurdjieff's teachings through her writing mentor, Alfred Orage, spurs her to rush to Fontainebleau to study with Gurdjieff at his institute at the Prieuré. She must do some painful reckoning with her husband, Middleton Murry, and her companion, Ida, as she embraces this new, brief phase of life. I have been fascinated by Mansfield for over three decades, continually astonished by the quality of her writing, particularly the last stories, diaries, and letters which were the main sources from which I drew. Her verve, wit, precision, and candor make her one of the greatest writers of her time. The novel tries to portray the ocean of feeling from which her writing emerged in her final years. While researching this novel, I made a pilgrimage to the Prieuré, which was undergoing renovation, and managed to sneak inside and snap a picture of a staircase before the workmen chased me out. That was the staircase where Mansfield collapsed and died in January 1923. Seeing the place and walking up those stairs was an incredibly moving experience which fueled my project.
In LOVING MODIGLIANI THE AFTERLIFE OF JEANNE HEBUTERNE, artist Amedeo Modigliani, embittered and unrecognized, dies of mengingitis in January 1920. Jeanne Hébuterne, his young wife and muse, follows 48 hours later by falling backwards through a window. Now a ghost, Jeanne drifts about the studio she shared with Modigliani. She was not only his favorite model but also an artist whose works were later shut away from public view after her demise. Enraged, she watches as her belongings are removed from the studio and her identity as an artist seemingly effaced for posterity, carried off in a suitcase by her brother. She then sets off to rejoin Modigliani in the underworld. Thus begins Loving Modigliani, retelling the story of Jeanne Hébuterne's fate as a woman and an artist through three timelines and three precious objects stolen from the studio: a diary, a bangle, and a portrait. Decades later, a young art history student will discover Jeanne's diary and rescue her artwork from oblivion. Although this novel incorporates fantasy and gothic elements, it's based on the true story of Jeanne Hébuterne and her rediscovery as an artist in the year 2000, when her artworks were displayed publicly for the first time in eighty years. I happened to be present at the first exhibition of her work and was captivated by her personality and her emergence from the black hole of collective memory. I was obsessed with the question of why her work was forgotten for so long, and that is how my research began. Loving Modigliani is a celebration of the artists of Montparnasse, but it is also an inquiry into art as the door to immortality.
In all my writing, I incorporate a strong sense of place. The experience of absorbing the influences of a particular landscape or building— the power of place—has helped me immerse myself in the Zeitgeist of an era during my writing process. I describe how I developed that process in my writing craft book, The Soul of Place: Ideas and Exercises for Conjuring the Genius Loci.
Linda Lappin's novels are featured in the Visual Art and Literature categories on Art In Fiction.
Art & Artists have been an obsession of mine for decades. My novels: Loving Modigliani The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne, Signatures in Stone: A Bomarzo Mystery, The Etruscan, and Katherine's Wish, are all set in artists' enclaves of the 1920s & deal with the lives of artists, predominantly women artists, the struggle to balance artistic expression with the demands of interpersonal relationships -- and our striving to live beyond time through art. See my guest post in Art in Fiction on the role and influence of art in my fiction.
Loving Modigliani & Signatures in Stone have been popular art book club picks.
My creative writing book The Soul of Place: Ideas and Exercises for Conjuring the Genius Loci has been adopted not only by creative writers, but by visual artists, filmmakers, and photographers and was incorporataed into Janice Mason Steeves Painting Workshops in the Wild Program.
Below you will find a list of my published writings on art & artists with links. Click on the boldface titles in red to open.
Missing Person in Montparnasse: The Case of Jeanne Hébuterne from the Literary Review, Pushcart Nominee.
Dada Queen in the Bad Boys' Club: Elsa Von Freytag-Loringhoven from the Southwest Review
Decoding the Secrets of Italian Story-Telling Gardens from Messy Nessy Chic
Writings on Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki De Saint Phalle: Creating the Tarot Garden
Niki De Saint Phalle: From Traditional Iconography to Personal Vision of the Tarot
The above blogs were condensed as a guest post for The Painted Palazzo
Contemporary Artists in Italy
Justin Bradshaw: British Artist Working in Italy For Three Decades
Contemporary Ceramic Artist Giuseppe Utano
More on Jeanne Hébuterne & Modigliani
Following Jeanne & Modi Through Paris
The Paris of Jeanne & Modi, Then & Now
Deep Mapping the Paris of Jeanne Hebuterne
Prehistoric & Ancient Art and Architecture
The Storied Stones of Pranu Muttedu
Prehistoric Art & Architecture in Sardinia
Etruscan Art & Culture in The Etruscan
Miscellaneous Essays & Reviews
Courbet L'Origine from After the Art
Review of Artists in Residence by Melissa Wyse and Kate Lewis from Rain Taxi
Review of The Vanished Collection by Pauline Baer de Perignon. from Rain Taxi
Review of Bloom, On Becoming an Artist Later in Life by Janice Mason Steeves from the California Review of Books
Review of L'Origine The Secret History of the World's Most Erotic Masterpiece by Lilianne Milgrom from the California Review of Books
Translations
Linda Lappin has translated three volumes for the University of Chicago Press History of Rome and Roman Culture series:
Public Lettering: Script, Power & Culture, Armando Petrucci
Bernini: Flights of Love The Art of Devotion, Giovanni Careri
Roman Women, Augusto Fraschetti