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Unveiling: a novel
by Suzanne M. Wolfe
Paraclete Press, 2004. 190 pages.
The world of art abounds in mystery -- and mysteries. Along with the sheer mystery of artistic vision and technique, the history of art offers plenty of mysteries and conundrums: Just who is pictured in Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring”? How did the ancient cave-painters at Lascaux accomplish their stunning murals? Just what was Leonardo up to with the Mona Lisa and the disciple seated next to Jesus in “The Last Supper”? These, and questions like them, have inspired everyone from conspiracy theorists to investigative journalists to fiction writers to pursue answers. With Unveiling, Suzanne M. Wolfe throws her hat into the ring of novelists exploring such mystery and mysteries.
Unveiling has all the elements of an intriguing intellectual mystery: an attractive heroine with haunting shadows from the past; a painting, in an out-of-the-way Roman church, that has suddenly attracted American corporate sponsorship to see to its restoration; an Italian communist who loves mother, art, and integrity; and a supporting cast of clerics, corporate shills, and art history experts, all of whom share an interest in the provenance of the painting that the heroine has been charged with restoring and identifying.
Rachel Piers is the American art restorer who has accepted an assignment to restore and identify a triptych in Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Rome. The main thrust of Rachel’s task is to determine if the painting is a lost masterpiece by the great Dutch master Rogier Van der Weyden. If it is, the chances that the painting will remain in Our Lady of Sorrows Church are slim -- rather, it would likely end up in a corporately funded museum in the United States, an outcome that Rachel would despise and that would bring grief to the people of the church. But as a professional restorer and historian, she must pursue her task with honesty and integrity, whatever the outcome.
With each layer of grime and varnish Rachel and her associates remove from the surface of the painting, new questions arise. Why did the painter use “dragon’s blood” as pigment when such material was more commonly used in manuscript illumination? Why do the figures in the painting appear in non-traditional dress and poses for a painting of this time, place, and subject? Questions arise, too, outside the frame of the painting: Why is a major American corporation paying for this work? What is the role of the Church in all this?
Wolfe displays a keen eye for detail, and as Rachel uncovers more and more of the painting’s secrets, her own personal restoration is also going on. She is recently divorced and is carrying several burdens from the near and distant past, including a strained relationship with her mother. In the process, however, too little of the reader’s attention focuses on the fascinating task of the restoration of the painting and the detective work involved in answering such questions and in discovering and verifying its provenance. Some of the most dramatic discoveries occur offstage, leaving the reader to merely hear the results rather than discover them with Rachel and her colleagues. Witnessing more of Rachel’s dedication and expertise in her professional work might cause the reader to sympathize more fully with her in her personal travails. The answers to the questions of the painting’s provenance are compelling. In real life, Rachel’s discovery would be front-page news, but here it comes across as anti-climactic for all parties.
Even with its flaws, Unveiling raises to awareness good and necessary questions about the relationship between capitalism and art, the politics of art ownership, and the disconnection between religious institutions and faithful men and women and the art that graces the places in which they worship. Suzanne M. Wolfe’s debut novel compares favorably with Susan Vreeland’s Girl in Hyacinth Blue and Robert Hellenga’s The Sixteen Pleasures, and whets the appetite for whatever the author might offer next.
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