Laura Morelli

Laura Morelli Laura Morelli, Ph.D. | Art historian | USA Today & PW bestselling historical novelist
Take a class, LAURA MORELLI holds a Ph.D.

in art history from Yale University, has taught college students in the U.S. and in Italy, and currently produces art history lessons for TED-Ed. She authored a column for National Geographic Traveler called “The Genuine Article” and has contributed pieces about art and authentic travel to CNN Radio, The Frommers Travel Show, and in USA TODAY, Departures, and other media. Laura is the author of th

e Authentic Arts guidebook series that includes the popular book Made in Italy. Her fiction brings the stories of art history to life. Her debut novel, The Gondola Maker, won an IPPY for Best Historical Fiction and a Benjamin Franklin Award. The Night Portrait is a USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller, and has been a book club pick at Target, Costco, and Veranda Magazine.

Carpe diem
20/01/2026

Carpe diem

Yes, I'm writing another book... 📚So many of you have asked what I'm working on next. Thank you! I'm back in the studiol...
08/01/2026

Yes, I'm writing another book... 📚

So many of you have asked what I'm working on next. Thank you!

I'm back in the studiolo (my happy place), and back into my current historical novel in progress.

This one is moving slowly, y'all.

The good news: The first draft and first revision are DONE. Whew! These, for me, are the hardest parts of writing fiction.

Of the two main characters, one came out so easily, and the other one is giving me a run for my money. 😂 Ah, how fictional characters can torment their authors...

I've had to cut about 30,000 words (ouch), which is a painful but sometimes necessary part of the revision process.

This story has surprised me with its twists and turns. And I love, love, love the topic, historical setting, and characters.

Avanti!

Three Kings 👑👑👑Today, Italians (and many others around the world) are celebrating the Feast of the Three Kings. This cel...
06/01/2026

Three Kings 👑👑👑

Today, Italians (and many others around the world) are celebrating the Feast of the Three Kings. This celebration happens on Epiphany (January 6), which falls twelve days after Christmas, the traditional length of time it took for the magi to travel to Bethlehem.

Over the centuries, Italian artists have tried their hand at representing the momentous visit to Bethlehem. The subject evolved to include three men (the gospels don’t specify the number of magi) bearing gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

According to tradition, they are Balthazar, from Yemen or Ethiopia, who brings myrrh; Melchior, a middle-aged king from Persia who brings frankincense; and Caspar, an older man possibly from India, bearing gold.

These details gave painters fodder to spark their artistic imagination and experimentation.

-Three Kings mosaic from Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna ca. 520s (detail)

-Giotto di Bondone, Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1320, tempera on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (detail)

-Sandro Botticelli, Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1475, tempera on wood, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (detail)

-Andrea Mantegna, Adoration of the Magi, distemper on linen, ca. 1495-1506, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (detail)

-Artemisia Gentileschi, Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1636-37, oil on canvas, Cathedral of San Procolo, Pozzuoli

👉 ️More Italian art history in my weekly newsletter!

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Before returning to my regularly scheduled programming about Italian culture, art, and books, I want to THANK YOU for th...
04/01/2026

Before returning to my regularly scheduled programming about Italian culture, art, and books, I want to THANK YOU for the outpouring of love and support you've shown me since last week, when I shared my rough ending to 2025.

I am overwhelmed. Grazie di cuore. ❤️

I've heard from so many of you about similar health challenges you or your loved ones have faced. My heart goes out to you, and I take comfort in knowing I'm not alone.

My husband encouraged me to write about my experience and share it, but I admit it wasn't easy to do so.

I wish I could respond individually to the many messages I've received via email and social media. Please know they are incredibly appreciated.

I'm healing up well. I am grateful to be taking long walks on the beach again, and receiving great hugs from my family and friends.

Onward.

While 2025 delivered a giant "low" at the end (see my previous posts), it also came through with many more wonderful "hi...
31/12/2025

While 2025 delivered a giant "low" at the end (see my previous posts), it also came through with many more wonderful "highs." Here are some of the best of 2025:

1. The launch of THE KEEPER OF LOST ART
2. Marrakesh
3. Pompeii
4. Sardinia
5. Cerveteri
6. Napoli
7. Sardinia (again)
8. Calabria
9. Sardinia (again)
10. Reggio di Calabria
11. Milan
12. In Hollywood to film something I still can't even talk about
13. Stonehenge
14. Signing THE KEEPER OF LOST ART at one of my local bookstores
15. Rome ☕
16. Florence
17. Florence (again)
18. London
19. Atlas Mountains, Morocco
20. On the party bus with my writer friends at the Historical Novel Society meeting (so very glad I don't have to go to Las Vegas again to see them next time--LOL)

Personally, I'm wishing for more of these highs in 2026.

How about you? What's on your bucket list for the new year?

Why Art and Books MatterHere's what I learned in 2025...Over the years, I have received emails from readers telling me m...
30/12/2025

Why Art and Books Matter

Here's what I learned in 2025...

Over the years, I have received emails from readers telling me my books and online art history programs got them through a tough time.

This is one of the gifts of the author life—receiving a message from a reader who says your stories helped them get through being homebound during an illness, gave them a temporary escape from the relentlessness of caregiving, or transported them to a different place during a time when they couldn’t travel.

Throughout my health crisis this fall, I experienced the power of art and books myself in a way I never have before. I know I’ve been fortunate to have gone so long without finding myself in such a situation.

In the anxious days following my initial diagnosis, I would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold panic. I quickly learned that opening my ipad to my latest read, even if it was 3:00am, was the best way to ride the intense wave of fear and get to the other side.

During two and a half weeks undergoing treatment in Houston, I must have read 20 novels.

When I began to recover from surgery enough to take longer walks, I made a beeline for the Trajan exhibition at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts, the galleries of the Menil Collection, and Mark Rothko's amazing chapel, which was probably the most healing of all.

Whether strolling through a gallery or resting on a bench, whether contemplating an ancient mosaic or an abstract painting, I felt peace and gratitude to spend the precious moments of life this way.

I have always said the thread linking all my novels is that “Art has the power to bring hope during times of darkness.” And now I know the truth of this first-hand, in a way I never appreciated before.

Yes. Books and art are getting me through a time of walking through the fire. They make everything better.

If you are an author or an artist who questions (like we do most of the time) if your work means anything at all or if you are just shouting into a void, here is your reminder that what you do matters.

At times, it can even be a lifeline for someone who needs it.

A rough ending to 2025...This year was stacking up to be one of my favorite ones ever. Sending the last of four kids off...
30/12/2025

A rough ending to 2025...

This year was stacking up to be one of my favorite ones ever. Sending the last of four kids off successfully to college, carefree travels to both beloved and uncharted places, reconnecting with old friends...

But then, 2025 threw me a terrifying plot twist I never saw coming: a diagnosis of colorectal cancer, even though everything on the surface seemed “completely fine.”

As the year comes to a close, I count many, many blessings:

-The support of my family, especially my husband, who travelled with me halfway across the country to interview medical teams at three cancer centers, took copious handwritten notes, waited anxiously for results, and spent every moment of every sleepless night alongside me

-The incredible expertise, dedication, and compassion I received from each professional at MD Anderson Cancer Center. So many people lack access to such care, and I do not take it for granted

-A successful surgery and a good prognosis

-God as the ultimate healer. This was a big surgery, and I am amazed to feel close to myself again, and so quickly. The picture of me going into the OR and the one of me having dinner out in Houston were taken 10 days apart. It's incredible how the body heals.

I have more recovery and monitoring ahead of me, but I’m OK. I feel mostly back to myself and am so thankful for a good prognosis.

I'm grateful to my readers and students for bringing meaning to my life this year. Wishing you peace and prosperity in 2026.

P.S. Here is your reminder to get your preventive cancer screenings! That’s the only way I found mine, when all my other labs and images gave the false impression that everything was totally normal.

07/12/2025

This week, my newsletter subscribers are learning about what is arguably the strangest and most beautiful of all Italian Nativities: Sandro Botticelli's rendition of the subject from about 1500...

Among the countless retellings of the Christmas story in Italian art, Botticelli's so-called Mystic Nativity stands out for its unusual subject matter.

This is Botticelli’s only known painting where he inscribed his own name. And yet, we know so little about the circumstances of its creation.

No primary sources from the sixteenth century help us understand this puzzling picture. We don’t know who the patron was; we don’t have evidence of a commission or an original location. We don’t know what prompted Botticelli to paint such an unusual image of Christ's birth.

But there is still so much to unpack here that I created an online "mini deep dive" into Botticelli's Christmas masterpiece.

I hope you'll join me to explore this fascinating and unusual work of art!

The invitation to dive into the various interpretations of this painting is going out exclusively to my newsletter subscribers this week.

If you're not getting my Tuesday emails, make sure you've signed up...

👉 I send a free email every Tuesday, where we nerd out on books, Italy, and art history! If this sounds like your kind of place, too, then please join me!

👉 lauramorelli.com/subscribe

A previously unknown Michelangelo drawing will go to auction at Christie's in New York in February, with an estimated ha...
03/12/2025

A previously unknown Michelangelo drawing will go to auction at Christie's in New York in February, with an estimated hammer price of up to $2 million.

The small red chalk study—just five inches tall—depicts a pointed foot dating around 1511-1512. Scholars believe Michelangelo may have made this sketch while preparing to paint the Libyan Sibyl on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

The drawing surfaced when its owner, who inherited it from his grandmother, submitted a photograph to Christie's online portal. The piece had been in his family since the late 18th century.

After months of analysis, Christie's specialist Giada Damen concluded the paper dated to the 16th century. Infrared reflectography revealed additional black chalk drawings on the reverse side.

When compared to a well-known sketch by Michelangelo for the same sibyl at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the scale, color, and handling of red chalk matched perfectly.

This discovery is significant for several reasons. Of the roughly 600 surviving Michelangelo drawings, only about ten remain in private hands. Almost all known studies for the Sistine Chapel are in public collections. This will be the first unrecorded Sistine ceiling study ever to appear at auction.

The drawing reveals Michelangelo's working method: You can see where he first sketched the heel with delicate chalk lines, then strengthened them with more vigorous strokes—adjusting the pose as he drew, working out how the Sibyl's foot would press against the ground to bear the weight of this monumental figure painted three times life-size.

Photos:
-Drawing up for auction
-Michelangelo's Libyan Sibyl from the Sistine Ceiling
-Preparatory sketch for the Libyan Sibyl in the

30/11/2025

This week, my newsletter subscribers and I are diving into the history of the Nativity in Italian Renaissance art...

According to legend, the tradition of live nativity scenes began with Saint Francis of Assisi, who reenacted the birth of Christ using actors and animals in the central Italian town of Greccio in 1223.

Over time, popular piety and the Italian love of public processions fueled this tradition.

By the fourteenth century, the Nativity had evolved as a popular subject among Italian sculptors and painters.

The subject is immediately recognizable: the newborn Christ in the center of the composition, surrounded by Mary, Joseph, animals, and sometimes the presence of visiting saints, kings, or other figures.

Much more in this week's newsletter...

👉 I send a free email every Tuesday, where we nerd out on books, Italy, and art history! If this sounds like your kind of place, too, then please join me!

👉 lauramorelli.com/subscribe

This week, my newsletter subscribers got an invitation to my holiday pop-up shop. 🎁If you're not on my Tuesday mailing l...
29/11/2025

This week, my newsletter subscribers got an invitation to my holiday pop-up shop. 🎁

If you're not on my Tuesday mailing list, you're missing out!

I have been working on some GORGEOUS special editions of some of my novels, plus personally curated course bundles for the Italy and art lovers on your holiday shopping list.

If you order physical books, I will sign, hand-wrap them with holiday ribbons, and include a handwritten message.

The shop closes on December 9 so I have time to send out gifts before Christmas.

These gifts have been so much fun for me to put together! I hope you find the perfect thing for someone on your list who loves historical fiction, Italy, or art history.

Another invitation to the pop-up shop is going out to new subscribers at 6am Eastern on Tuesday.

👉 If you would like access to the shop, make sure you're signed up to receive my weekly emails:

👉 lauramorelli.com/subscribe/

Give thanks! 🍁
27/11/2025

Give thanks! 🍁

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