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Portrait of an Unknown Woman
Vanora Bennett
Holbein?s genius for truth-telling through his painting brings out all the family secrets in the second portrait he paints of the Mores ? including the one that even hardly anyone in the family knows, that of John Clement?s true identity.
William Morrow
April 2007
On Sale: April 1, 2007
Featuring: John Clement; Meg Gigg; Hans Holbein
432 pages
ISBN: 0061251836
EAN: 9780061251832
Hardcover
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Historical
The year is 1527. The great portraitist Hans Holbein, who
has fled the reformation in Europe, is making his first trip
to England under commission to Sir Thomas More. In the
course of six years, Holbein will become a close friend to
the More family and paint two nearly identical family
portraits. But closer examination of the paintings reveals
that the second holds several mysteries... Set
against the turmoil, intrigue and, tragedy of Henry VIII's
court, Portrait of an Unknown Woman vividly evokes
sixteenth-century England on the verge of enormous change.
As the Protestant Reformation sweeps across Europe to lap at
England's shores, relations between her king and the
Catholic Church begin to plummet-driven by Henry VIII's
insatiable need for a male heir and the urgings of his
cunning mistress Anne Boleyn-and heresy begins to take hold.
As tensions rise, Henry VIII turns to his most trusted
servant and defender of Catholic orthodoxy, Sir Thomas More
to keep peace in England, but soon the entire More family
find their own lives at risk. At the center of
Portrait of an Unknown Woman is Meg Gigg's, Sir
Thomas More's twenty-three year old adopted daughter.
Intelligent, headstrong, and tender-hearted, Meg has been
schooled in the healing arts. And though she is devoted to
her family, events conspire that will cause Meg to question
everything she thought she knew-including the desires of her
own heart. As the danger to More and his family increases,
two men will vie for Meg's affections: John Clement, her
former tutor and More's protégé who shares Meg's passion for
medicine, but whose true identity will become unclear, and
the great Holbein, who's artistic vision will forever alter
her understanding of the world. With a striking
sense of period detail Portrait of an Unknown Woman
is an unforgettable story of sin and religion, desire and
deception. It is the story of a young woman on the brink of
sensual awakening and of a country on the edge of mayhem.
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