Courtesans - no knitting content

Mimi lent me this book by Sarah Dunant and I am really enjoying it. One of the many things I have done in my life was study art history at the graduate level. Loved it but never got a degree. Took up accounting instead but that is another, not very interesting, story.
Anyway, I did a bunch of research on courtesans while taking a class on the Renaissance painters of Venice. I also learned about some very racy (raunchy in the extreme) illustrations with a text of pornographic poems by Aretino. They are an important element in the plot of In the Company of the Courtesan. Titian also shows up in the book to use her as the model for the Venus of Urbino.
Even without any art history background, I think I would still be finding the book enjoyable. It is told from the point of view of Bucino, a dwarf, who is the courtesan's companion through their lives in Rome and Venice. There is love, magic, violence, art and Venice!