Terence Morgan

The narrator of this fascinating book is famed painter, Hans Memling, who toiled at the court of the dukes of Burgundy during dramatic times. Sure enough, his fate ends up entwined with those of two young heirs to different thrones; Mary of Burgundy and the young son of Edward IV in England. There have been a flurry of books about the final stages of the wars of the Roses, and Richard III, in recent years (many of them rather mediocre); this comes as a refreshing change. We see the world show more through the e yes of the painter himself, in chapters entitled in an almost medieval fashion, "Of the Sadness Concerning My Lady", "Of My Journey Into England", etc. It's a brisk narrative (occasionally too brisk); intriguingly, it's sometimes interrupted when Memling talks directly to the reader about his art, linking the techniques of his painting directly or implicitly to the story he is telling. In a movie, these reflective pauses would be like a main character speaking "direct to camera"; they work very well in this book, linking Memling as a painter to Memling as an observer and later as a participant in dramatic events. "The face seems to change aspect as the viewer concentrates on different portions of it," Memling muses in a mini-chapter entitled "Of Faces" -- and so, he adds, "face value is no value at all, and truth is not to be found therein."

The story itself moves rapidly from how Memling establishes himself as a court painter in Burgundy, to his first encounters with two young English refugees in 1471. No surprise to the historical fiction reader (the target audience for this book); they are Edward IV and his younger brother, the future Richard III. That encounter sets the stage for events that will follow more than a decade later, when Memling (in Morgan's fictional rendering, at least) travels to England to complete a triptych and finds himself caught up in the drama surrounding the succession to the throne. Morgan's solution to the mystery of the Princes in the Tower is extremely creative and even downright quirky; still, it makes for a compelling yarn.

While there are a few points where the quick style is a weakness (the outcome of the relationship between Hans and Mary of Burgundy is a bit too abrupt), but by and large this Morgan's is a refreshing new voice in the world of historical fiction. Highly recommended to HF buffs; I was glad to learn the author is now at work on a new book that will pick up on the lives of some of the characters. show less

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was fun to read a story set in a city and describing places that I enjoyed visiting myself over 500 years later. The main character and first-person narrator, is the artist Hans Memling, whose work I enjoyed looking at online as certain pieces were described in the book.

I found all the references to art techniques, and portrait requests of the time to be interesting. ”The lovely face of that Madonna is composed of no more than piss, dirt and filth, and show more the highlights of her hair are brought out with a wash of lye and soot in more or less equal parts.” For family portraits, patrons often asked to be painted into a scene with a madonna or saints. Portraits with landscapes in the background were much more expensive. Portraits with plain, drapery or paneled backgrounds cost less because apprentices could do much of that work. In the Donne Triptych pictured below, he has the story go that there were decades between its order and the family finally being able to get the picture, and that Memling updated the patriarch’s face to reflect his advanced age, leaving the rest of the family as painted at their initial sittings.

The author has Memling enthralled by the daughter of Duke Charles the Bold, and has the duke request him to paint her in all his upcoming works as a way to advertise her so that a good match can be made. Indeed, his work does seem to use the same model many times.

Chapter titles are interesting, too. Interspersed with the progression of the story, are short chapters about art. “On the Mixing of Colors”, “Of the Composition of a Portrait”, and “Of Perspective” find their places among chapters such as “Of the Visit of My Lord to My House (1465)”.

Adding a twist to story, we find that Master Memling is an unreliable narrator.
” To paint is to feign; it is to make an artifice. We colour our pictures in the sense that we colour a story; to put it bluntly, we lie.
We present in two dimensions that which exists in three, and yet we force the viewer to ‘see’ their three dimensions in our two, All is lies, all is artifice all is fake; and yet the viewer sees all as true. Strange, is it not?
It is all a matter of technique, of fooling the eye of turning the falsehood into something truer than truth.
The stock-in-trade of a painter is trickery, so you must be warned. Do not believe any thing that a painter tells you.”

Of the Princes in the Tower, the author has Memling as a tutor to the oldest, who is interested in his craft. He has Richard, as Lord Protector of his nephews after their father’s death, and finding himself targeted by other factions, put the oldest in a suite in the tower to protect the future king. On one of his visits, the younger brother decides to come stay with his sickly and lonely older brother.
”The words ring in my ears until this day – ‘They were dead before we got here.’ Not so, but the princes were dead from the moment Richard III fell at Bosworth. Dick underestimated the evil of Henry Tudor.”

I have not done much reading on this era of history, but it seems to me that the author’s tale must be quite different from the accepted versions. Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed this three-corded story of art, history and a medieval city. show less

The Master of Bruges is the story of Hans Memling, a fifteenth century portrait painter whose voice is masterfully brought to life in this debut novel.

In his newly-inherited position as portrait painter to the nobility at home and abroad Memling is privy to the lives of the rich and the powerful. He is also able to observe the political and personal machinations that motivate them. The story moves Memling from Bruges to England and includes insights into Memling's role in the War of the show more Roses and the mystery of the Princes in the Tower.

Talking of a portrait of the Madonna, Memling says the "red rose she wears at her breast is painted from a compound of alum and powdered wood, lye and urine. If you could smell it, the odour would be the stale of horses." He tells us that in the world of painting, "all is artifice", nothing is as it seems. And so it is too with the life and loves of Memling. He has his own dark secrets, and they are not just the secrets of the mixing of paint.

This is refreshingly unlike any other historical novel I have read. It has the scholarship of non-fiction combined with a character that will hold your interest as he tells his true story.

At the heart of this book is the loving recreation in words of Hans Memling's art. In one respect I found it frustrating not to have the illustrations there in front of me, but in another it allowed Morgan to do his job and create them through the writing - a job he does remarkably well. Morgan sticks rigorously to the known facts of Memling's life whilst introducing a plausible sub-text of Memling's own fascinating opinions of those he paints.

This book will delight anyone who paints, anyone who likes fifteenth century history, or indeed anyone who likes a period skilfully brought to life. show less