The author of this book describes its inspiration in his historical notes as "the strange conjunction of the coming of ultramaring blue (which encouraged the development of landscape, perspective and depth in Italian painting) with the invention of spectacles...The lapid lazuli mines are mentioned in Marco Polo's Travels and, for much of the Renaissance, the principal source of ultramarine blue was Badakhshan (now northern Afghanistan)."

The story is set in Venice in 1295 and tells of Paolo, abandoned at birth but found by Teresa who raises him as her own. He has extraordinary blue eyes, but is also short-sighted, a considerable disability in his adoptive father's glass-making business in Murano. But Paolo has a gift for discerning colour and tone, so he is apprenticed by a famous painter who sends him on a journey to find the perfect blue - the colour for heaven in his commissioned religious artwork.

Paolo experiences strange lands, assorted characters, finds love and even spectacles.

Given the subject material I had hoped the book would have more depth and be a more complex story. That said, it is a lovely read, gentle and warm and satisfying in its conclusion

Released Sunday, May 30, 2004 at East Gosford Art Gallery in Gosford, New South Wales Australia.

left on display table near gift shop