Glance at Culture - A Conversation with Art Historian and Author Dr. Laura Morelli on Historical Justice and Historical Fiction

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Please visit Laura Morelli's website to learn more.

Show Notes: 

2:20 Travels in Europe began  interest in art history

3:00 academia to historical fiction

4:20 Dual timelines of The Night Portrait and The Stolen Lady

5:45 Characters in The Night Portrait set around da Vinci’s Lady With an Ermine in  Italian Renaissance and its theft in Nazi-Occupied Poland

7:30 The Stolen Lady set around creation of Mona Lisa and efforts to save it during WWII

8:40 Conspiracies around Mona Lisa

9:40 16th and 17th Century copies of Mona Lisa

10:35 Theft of Mona Lisa in 1911 by Italian contractor who thought it had been stolen from Italy

11:45 Da Vinci’s work in Court of France; how Mona Lisa came to be in French Royal Collection and then Louvre

13:00 Use of protagonist Bellina’s agency as servant

15:45 Bonfire of the Vanities after  Medici  expelled from Florence, Italy

17:40 The Gondola Maker - 16th Century Venice

18:45 Gondola burning as a Venetian act of justice to punish gondolier

20:20 Characters in The Night Portrait

20:54 Cecilia Gallerani, subject of Lady with an Ermine

22:35 German art conservator Edith conscripted into looting 

23:30 Scale of art looting during World War II 

24:30 Hans Frank who served as Nazi General Governor of Nazi-occupied Poland and was known as the Butcher of Poland

25:50 Value of art versus value of life during war

26:45 Review of The Night Portrait compared character of Edith with character of Hannah in The Woman Who Heard Color by Kelly Jones 

27:45 Complications of character with Edith

28:40 Outlining 

31:20 Advice for historical fiction authors

32:05 Empowerment of writers

32:35 Read with eye of craftsperson to see skeleton of book

33:10 Foreshadowing in first chapters that will come to fruition later

34:00 recommendations of Tracy Chevalier and Geraldine Brooks

34:18 Author recommendation of Ken Follett, including his book The Pillars of the Earth about construction of a cathedral in Medieval England

35:20 Author recommendations of Umberto Eco; Maggie O’Farrell, including  Hamnet; and Karen Maitland

35:50 LauraMorelli.com and Art History Academy under ‘Learn’ tab

37:40 Virtual visits to Italian museums and archeological sites

39:00 Using art as research resource 

39:20 Books on daily life in era recommended as an aid for sensory details

40:25 Recommendations - craft of writing

42:35 Survivor bias 

44:15 Da Vinci’s missing/destroyed hydraulic and engineering projects

45:25 Raphael’s missing Portrait of a Youth

47:30 Facilitating historical justice through books like The Night Portrait

48:50 Upcoming book on the evacuation of the Uffizi Gallery

50:20 Uffizi book inspired by ways art evacuated/managed in Italy than elsewhere during WWII 

52:35 Historical justice theme in upcoming Uffizi book

Please share your comments and/or questions at [email protected]

Music by Toulme.

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© Stephanie Drawdy [2026]