VICENZA, Italy -- Vicenza Military Community members gathered March 15 at the Golden Lion to listen to Ross King, a New York Times best-selling author, as he spoke about art, history and architecture.
King has visited the installation several times in the past to present topics from his books, this time focusing on Michelangelo and Machiavelli.
Studying at the University of London for 14 years, obtaining a Ph.D. and post-doctoral fellowship, King said he originally envisioned a career in academia.
He knew writing was the core of his passion for reading, but he never predicted the success the world has allotted him.
Recalling his first visit to Paris 25 years ago, King explained that he had never set foot into any of the museums because he wanted to see what the city was about. His goal was to learn the streets and watch people -- only later looking in museums and communing with paintings. King said he was in awe that Europeans lived with so much history in their day-to-day lives.
"In North America … the historical record isn't that deep, and so I think maybe we're more in awe of history because of that. I think maybe that's one thing that feeds my books, just the curiosity I have for this world," said the writer.
When asked to describe his first artistic encounter, how old was he and what was he drawn to, King confessed he had never been asked that before. Nostalgia took over his expression. Being one of seven children, he said camping holidays were most of what he knew. Growing up in a small town, there was a gallery composed of local contemporary art. Little did King know that stepping into that gallery would change his life forever.
Intuitively always wanting to be a writer, King said "naturally," he also wanted to paint.
"I thought, because I'm left-handed, I'm going to be like Leonardo Da Vinci, but I realized that I couldn't. I had no artistic aptitude," he said. His theory behind justifying his position is that there needs to be people in the world who appreciate art and the artists themselves.
"I can't paint, but I can celebrate people who can," he said.
Comprised only of a feeling, King's inspiration stems from his enthusiasm for how people lived their lives. He said he ponders questions such as, "what was it like to live in Florence in the 1400s or in Rome in the 1500s?" Therefore, he works to answer those questions and labels his books as a literary time travel. The main focus in his stories is on giving his audience an immersive experience, specifically to readers who ponder the same questions he does. Although the location of the stories change, his inspiration always stays the same.
Giving advice to those who enjoy art, history and architecture, King stressed the importance of feeding one's love for the arts. He suggests reading about art, researching it, going to museums and seeing everything that art, history and architecture have to offer.
"Walk without a map in a city you're exploring and just follow your nose, follow your eyes, and see where all of that takes you," he said.
King is the best-selling author of books on Italian, French and Canadian art and history. Among his books are "Brunelleschi's Dome," "Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling," "The Judgment of Paris,"and "Leonardo and The Last Supper." He has also published two novels, a biography of Niccolò Machiavelli, and a collection of Leonardo da Vinci's fables, jokes and riddles. He is the co-author with Anja Grebe of "Florence: The Paintings & Frescoes," the most comprehensive book ever undertaken on the art of Florence.
His latest book, published in September 2016, is the story of Monet's struggles and triumphs in the last dozen years of his life, "Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies."
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