The Ornatrix: A Novel

The Ornatrix: A Novel by Kate Howard.  304 pages Due out in November, 2016 and on order for the library; I read an e-galley from Edelweiss

The price of beauty can be cruel . . . and deadly.

Flavia, a cloth-dyer's daughter, is born with a birthmark covering her face, which is in the shape of a bird in flight.  Her mother, ashamed of this mark, makes Flavia cover her face in public.  However, on the night of her younger sister's wedding, Flavia dares to do something drastic... which gets her sent away to the convent of Santa Guiliana, just outside the city of Perugia.

In the convent, Flavia encounters Ghostanza, a woman whose beauty is matched only by her cruelty, and whose white-painted face demands constant attention. Flavia becomes her ornatrix, attending to Ghostanza's constant needs for maintaining her appearance.  This becomes more and more difficult, as Ghostanza's supplies of Venetian cerussa runs low, and Flavia must search for a way to make more. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that this cerussa is more than just a makeup, and that Ghostanza's quest for beauty may become the downfall of both herself and Flavia.

Howard brings her characters and settings to life with vivid, evocative language and a pace that increases steadily, along with a sense of increasing dread that permeates the story.  The fact that the precious cerussa is a white lead paint used on the face lends an element of horror, as well.  As Flavia learns, once a woman has been using cerussa as a face paint for a long time, she cannot stop, since her face beneath the makeup grows increasingly awful.  The poisonous nature of these cosmetics is clearly conveyed, so to a modern reader, we can understand just how horrifying the consequences of using this makeup are, and can only continue to read, knowing that dreadful things are in store for the characters.

Yet, Howard's writing is so lush that you get a complete sense of this world, and can imagine these people in 16th century Italy, quite clearly.  It's not all awful; there are flashes of humor in the story, as Flavia has a wry view on much of her world.  However, the dark ribbon of the nasty undertones to Ghostanza underscore that there is, indeed, a high price to be paid for beauty.