I Am Venus

This fictional account of the seventeenth-century Spanish painter’s life is “a very enjoyable read . . . A portrait of Velázquez and a meditation on love” ( Washington Independent Review of Books ).   Narrated by the mysterious model who posed for Rokeby Venus , Diego Velázquez’s only surviving female nude, I Am Venus is the riveting account of a great artist’s rise to prominence, set against the backdrop of political turmoil and romantic scandal. A sweeping story of scandal