Featuring the beauties of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci combined with the dark and hidden
side of the Renaissance by an acclaimed historian and expert in the period. Renowned as an age
of artistic rebirth the Renaissance is cloaked with an aura of beauty and brilliance. But
behind the Mona Lisäs smile lurked a seamy vicious world of power politics perversity and
corruption that has more in common with the present day than anyone dares to admit. Enter a
world of corrupt bankers greedy politicians sex-crazed priests rampant disease and lives of
extravagance and excess. Enter the world of the ugly Renaissance. Uncovering the hidden
realities beneath the surface of the period¿s best-known artworks historian Alexander Lee
takes the reader on a breathtaking and unexpected journey through the Italian past and shows
that far from being the product of high-minded ideals the sublime monuments of the
Renaissance were created by flawed and tormented artists who lived in an ever-expanding world
of bigotry and hatred. The only question is: will you ever see the Renaissance in quite the
same way again?
