The Painter

Venice, 1592. The brush is mightier than the sword-but only if the hand holding it is invisible.

Jacopo Tintoretto is the lion of Venice, the greatest painter of the age. But the Master is a ruin, paralyzed by a secret stroke, a hollow shell propped up by velvet robes and old reputation. The true genius of the studio is his daughter, Lucia.

For years, Lucia has been the ghost in the machine, mixing the pigments and forging the brushstrokes that keep the Tintoretto brand alive. But now, the Inquisition has entered the studio.

Fra' Servanzio, the fanatic who destroyed the city's observatory and blinded its scientists, demands a portrait. He wants a mirror of his own soul. But Lucia, aided by the fugitive astronomer Elena d'Este and the apothecary Giulia Montanari, decides to give him something else entirely.

They will hide the forbidden map of the stars inside the varnish of the Inquisitor's own face.

As the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn approaches, the stakes rise to the ceiling of the Doge's Palace. Lucia is commissioned to paint Il Paradiso-the largest oil painting in the world. To succeed, she must pull off the ultimate deception: puppeteering her dying father before the Great Council while painting a revolution fifty feet in the air.

In a city built on reflections, Lucia Tintore is about to paint a truth so big that the Inquisition will be forced to pray to it.

The Painter is the third installment in the Daughters of Padua series by Julian Montrose. A heart-stopping episode in the series, it blends rich historical detail with high-stakes espionage, exploring the invisible women who built the Renaissance from the shadows.

Perfect for fans of The Name of the Rose, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and The Marriage of Opposites.