| 1624. The young Anton Van Dyck, fascinated by what he has been hearing about a lady artist called Sofonisba, decides to pay her a visit in Palermo where she is living, old and blind by this time.
Sofonisba gives him an utterly lucid account of her story - her beginnings as a painter and her experiences as a lady in waiting at Philip II's Spanish court.
Through their conversations, a peculiar, intense friendship develops between the two.
Another story is played out in parallel in the year 1564: pope Pius IV instructs the papl nuncio to travel to the Spanish court of Philip II on a secret mission.
The Inquisitor General of the Holy Inquisition, Fernando de Valdés, has imprisoned the Archbishop of Toledo. The latter knows a secret that must not be divulged on any account.
Hence the nuncio is to go on a diplomatic mission - a secret mission, in order to avoid interfering with the Inquisition while also safeguarding the Archbishop of Toledo, and above all ensuring that the pope's 'secret' is kept.
Sofonisba, who was residing at the time as a lady in waiting to Queen Isabel de Valois, acts as their messenger: the Pope has commissioned a painting from Sofonisba and the nuncio is to tamper with it to convey the message as to whether the secret is safe.
The plot thickens to such an extent that the precious, true 'secret' remains hidden for many a long year behind Sofonisba's painting, only to reappear many years later by chance...
Skulduggery at the palace, rivalries among painters, secrets implicating the Vatican in a corruption affair... all these ingredients are blended into the story of a real person: Sofonisba de Anguissola, an outstanding woman of that period, who succeeded as no other of her time had, and who, on account of being a woman, did not make it into the history books in the same way as her male counterparts.
The original manuscript in Italian is available: Il Segreto di Sofonisba.
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