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The Painted Room
A captivating experimental novel about the Italian Renaissance by the Danish master, whose “sensuous language resonates with cosmic urgency” (Columbia Review).
The Painted Room is a magnificent three-part short novel about the Italian Renaissance, and, specifically, the intrigue surrounding the frescoes that Mategna (1431-1506) made on the walls of a famous bridal chamber in the ducal palace of Lodovico III Gonzaga. Prince Lodovico of Mantua invites Mantegna to his palace to decorate the chamber, and the paintings are slowly completed. The painting of the duke and his family looks so peaceful—you would never guess that a murder had just taken place.The prince's secretary records its progress in his gossip-laden diary, while the story of the prince's daughter, the dwarf Nana, digs deeper into darker motivations, involving deceit, vendettas, an assassination, and the dalliances of Pope Pius II. Mantegna’s young son, Bernardino, helps complete the paintings and introduces a note of high fantasy into the narrative. What results is a beautiful yet startling picture of the Renaissance, as rich and colorful as the men and women depicted on the palace walls.
The Painted Room is a magnificent three-part short novel about the Italian Renaissance, and, specifically, the intrigue surrounding the frescoes that Mategna (1431-1506) made on the walls of a famous bridal chamber in the ducal palace of Lodovico III Gonzaga. Prince Lodovico of Mantua invites Mantegna to his palace to decorate the chamber, and the paintings are slowly completed. The painting of the duke and his family looks so peaceful—you would never guess that a murder had just taken place.The prince's secretary records its progress in his gossip-laden diary, while the story of the prince's daughter, the dwarf Nana, digs deeper into darker motivations, involving deceit, vendettas, an assassination, and the dalliances of Pope Pius II. Mantegna’s young son, Bernardino, helps complete the paintings and introduces a note of high fantasy into the narrative. What results is a beautiful yet startling picture of the Renaissance, as rich and colorful as the men and women depicted on the palace walls.
144 pages, Paperback
Published May 27, 2025
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169 people want to read
About the author
Inger Christensen
73 books148 followersInger Christensen was born in Vejle, Denmark, in 1935. Initially she studied medicine, but then trained as a teacher and worked at the College of Art in Holbæk from 1963–64. Although she has also written a novel, stories, essays, radio plays, a drama and an opera libretto, Christensen is primarily known for her linguistically skilled and powerful poetry.
Christensen first became known to a wider audience with the volumes "Lys" (1962; Light) and "Græs" (1963; Grass), which are much influenced by the modernistic imagery of the 60s, and in which she is concerned with the location of the lyric "I" in relation to natural and culturally created reality. The flat, regular landscape of Denmark, its plants and animals, the beach, the sea, the snow-filled winters have determined the topography of many of her poems. Christensen has also been known internationally since the appearance of the long poem "Det" (1969; "it" 2006), a form of creative report on the merger of language and the world, which centres around the single word "it" and covers more than two hundred pages. The book clearly reveals the influence on Christensen's poetic work of such a range of authors as Lars Gustafsson, Noam Chomsky, Viggo Brøndal, R.D. Laing and Søren Kierkegaard. The analogy between the development of poetic language and the growth of life is, as in "Det", also the basic motif of the volume of poetry "Alfabet" (1981; Alphabet). In addition to the alphabet itself – which gives the book its title and provides a logical arrangement for its fourteen sections –, the structure is generated by the so-called Fibonacci series, in which every number consists of the sum of the preceding two. The composition reflects the theme exactly: while "Det" points to the story of creation and its "In the beginning was the Word", here the alphabet is a pointer to the "A and O" of the apocalypse.
The story of her life and work offers access to a poetry that is difficult and enigmatic, but simultaneously simple and elementary. Inger Christensen is one of the most reflecting, form-conscious poets of the present day, and her history of ideas also provides information on the paradox of lyric art; making legible through poetic means what must necessary remain illegible, and in this way wrestling a specific order from the universal labyrinth. Here the transitions between the poet and the essayist Christensen are fluid: just as lyrical figures and motifs give her essays a density of their own, figures of thought and configurations of ideas return as an organic component of the poems.
Christensen first became known to a wider audience with the volumes "Lys" (1962; Light) and "Græs" (1963; Grass), which are much influenced by the modernistic imagery of the 60s, and in which she is concerned with the location of the lyric "I" in relation to natural and culturally created reality. The flat, regular landscape of Denmark, its plants and animals, the beach, the sea, the snow-filled winters have determined the topography of many of her poems. Christensen has also been known internationally since the appearance of the long poem "Det" (1969; "it" 2006), a form of creative report on the merger of language and the world, which centres around the single word "it" and covers more than two hundred pages. The book clearly reveals the influence on Christensen's poetic work of such a range of authors as Lars Gustafsson, Noam Chomsky, Viggo Brøndal, R.D. Laing and Søren Kierkegaard. The analogy between the development of poetic language and the growth of life is, as in "Det", also the basic motif of the volume of poetry "Alfabet" (1981; Alphabet). In addition to the alphabet itself – which gives the book its title and provides a logical arrangement for its fourteen sections –, the structure is generated by the so-called Fibonacci series, in which every number consists of the sum of the preceding two. The composition reflects the theme exactly: while "Det" points to the story of creation and its "In the beginning was the Word", here the alphabet is a pointer to the "A and O" of the apocalypse.
The story of her life and work offers access to a poetry that is difficult and enigmatic, but simultaneously simple and elementary. Inger Christensen is one of the most reflecting, form-conscious poets of the present day, and her history of ideas also provides information on the paradox of lyric art; making legible through poetic means what must necessary remain illegible, and in this way wrestling a specific order from the universal labyrinth. Here the transitions between the poet and the essayist Christensen are fluid: just as lyrical figures and motifs give her essays a density of their own, figures of thought and configurations of ideas return as an organic component of the poems.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 30, 2025
I have been reading Inger Christensen throughout this year. This is the third and (last?) of her translated fiction, recently re-released by New Directions. This three part novella is set in and revolves around life at the court of Lodovico Gonzaga and, at least for the first section one might be excused for thinking that this is a historical novel centering on the painting of the famous Bridal Chamber by Andrea Mantega in the mid-1400s. But of course, this is Christensen, and this work is no less fantastic and experimental than her earlier works, Azorno and Natalja's Stories.
The first part takes the form of a diary kept by the prince's secretary who once had a love affair with the painter's wife and is thus bitter and resentful of his presence, until things take strange turns. The second part imagines that the dwarf who appears in the family portrait in the painted room (or ghost chamber as the character's refer to it) is in fact a daughter of Lodovico's named Nana. After she is married to the son of the gardener, things started to get delightfully twisted. She is given a copy of the erotic novel famously written by Pope Pius II prior to his becoming a priest and ultimately Pope, as strange tales of parentage unravel, his tale of two lovers (not to mention his own indiscretions) play out again and again to magical (and humorous) effect. The final, dreamlike part, takes the form of a "how I spent my summer holidays" school assignment written by the 10 year-old son of Mantega who assists his father in painting his masterpiece.
Strange, smart, and wonderful fun.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2025/08/30/of...
The first part takes the form of a diary kept by the prince's secretary who once had a love affair with the painter's wife and is thus bitter and resentful of his presence, until things take strange turns. The second part imagines that the dwarf who appears in the family portrait in the painted room (or ghost chamber as the character's refer to it) is in fact a daughter of Lodovico's named Nana. After she is married to the son of the gardener, things started to get delightfully twisted. She is given a copy of the erotic novel famously written by Pope Pius II prior to his becoming a priest and ultimately Pope, as strange tales of parentage unravel, his tale of two lovers (not to mention his own indiscretions) play out again and again to magical (and humorous) effect. The final, dreamlike part, takes the form of a "how I spent my summer holidays" school assignment written by the 10 year-old son of Mantega who assists his father in painting his masterpiece.
Strange, smart, and wonderful fun.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2025/08/30/of...
July 1, 2025
The final version of this review from May 13, 2025, as has been finalized on June 30, 2025:
A novel this captivating in the way it unrolls its tale is a difficult one to try pinning down—and to make matters more difficult than usual, its length is brief enough to be perceived as a blink—yet, in an era where the literary misconception from nonreaders still stands that bigger usually implies better, its ephemerality is not to be confused with weakness, as Christensen’s The Painted Room arrives and passes as though taking on a life of its own, serving as the first butterfly witnessed in several years, small and full of grace, dying in your hand, becoming memorable enough to remain in your thoughts for the days to come, and when flipping the last wing, one will wonder when the next one may arrive, or if this’ll be the last time.
The Painted Room encompasses many ideas, many of which pertain to art, religion, love, determinism (the lack of free will,) but from my reading, the one subject it speaks on the most is the idea of tradition and the conception of folklore, how things become legend and how life becomes myth, with the ending passages seeming a culmination of all I've read in keeping the tradition with folkloric narratives and the ways in which people interact with religion and power (with both functioning as indiscernible twins within this text), whether it be for their own personal gain or for their idea of salvation.
The titular painted room itself is a collection of frescoes from the 1400s painted on the walls of the bridal chamber located deep in the heart of a palace by Italian artist Andrea Mantegna (perceived as pretentious by the narrator of the first third of the text), whose images are comprised of the various faces of people he’s met; and while painting this room, desires are born and lose their strength like sparks, inspiration runs its course and creativity takes on the look of eccentricity, diary entries are penned with several days lost in between, people pass away mysteriously with little to no resolution experienced by others, revelations are made as well as myths and half-truths, and several murders take place, with such grotesquerie feeling as though everything’s on the verge of being forgotten by a being unspoken of yet central to the text itself.
Inger Christensen is first and foremost a poet, but with the reading of this novel, I wonder as to why she isn't championed as a brilliant novelist as much as she is a writer of poetry—the lack of published literary fiction she’d written in her lifetime doesn’t justify this; and although The Painted Room merely borders on the edge of 130 pages, its broad scope captures and sustains what many fail to take on, with her economic style of writing and talent regarding how easy she makes it appear to write from various points of view.
The story is told through nonlinear plot techniques—part epistolary, part third-person, the first part of this triptych is told through the diary of a man named Marsilio, with the third and final part being written by Mantegna’s son, who delves into the mannerisms of his father, detailing his process of painting the plaster of the palace, and his rituals, creating a contrasting narrative of Mantegna compared to how he's represented in the first part of the novel; and just as what has been established with the functionality of a dying butterfly in my opening paragraph, this short work depends on the little things to move forward, for there’s a repetition at play throughout this novel: certain moments are reused and repurposed in a style which could only be considered Faulknerian at their core, with those events running their lengths from a different point of view, so, when reading this, it is important not to let the small details go over one’s head, for each aspect is used wisely to its full potential, hence Inger Christensen’s economic style.
Denise Newman’s translation renders Inger's prose as sparse but effective, flowing naturally within the mind and in the mouth when spoken, allowing the reader the privilege to read with the same ease one would have met had they known and read in the original Danish—and if Christensen were to write any more than what she'd written here, it’d disassemble all that she'd created; all in all, this book is just right, it isn’t anywhere near excessive, and yet it isn’t anywhere close to bare-boned—it’s simple, it’s complex, it’s heavy, it’s light, a culmination of oxymoronic juxtapositions, The Painted Room is a perfect kind of animal.
In my email to New Directions, I specifically mentioned small novels that're like pressure cookers, imploding within themselves with what little they really are—I will say, this novel is very much like my description of what I’d hoped this would've been; this is a class act and I'm grateful to have reviewed and read through it thoroughly before its release at the end of this month; if there's any novel one is looking forward to NDP releasing any time soon, it’s definitely this one.
[90/100]
The only reason for the rating in spite of my praise is for the fact I'm more drawn to denser prose, but this was a fresh breath of air considering the books I've read in the past; I might edit this review sometime in the future to shine a light on other aspects of it, as well as to elaborate further on some points I've made.
A novel this captivating in the way it unrolls its tale is a difficult one to try pinning down—and to make matters more difficult than usual, its length is brief enough to be perceived as a blink—yet, in an era where the literary misconception from nonreaders still stands that bigger usually implies better, its ephemerality is not to be confused with weakness, as Christensen’s The Painted Room arrives and passes as though taking on a life of its own, serving as the first butterfly witnessed in several years, small and full of grace, dying in your hand, becoming memorable enough to remain in your thoughts for the days to come, and when flipping the last wing, one will wonder when the next one may arrive, or if this’ll be the last time.
The Painted Room encompasses many ideas, many of which pertain to art, religion, love, determinism (the lack of free will,) but from my reading, the one subject it speaks on the most is the idea of tradition and the conception of folklore, how things become legend and how life becomes myth, with the ending passages seeming a culmination of all I've read in keeping the tradition with folkloric narratives and the ways in which people interact with religion and power (with both functioning as indiscernible twins within this text), whether it be for their own personal gain or for their idea of salvation.
The titular painted room itself is a collection of frescoes from the 1400s painted on the walls of the bridal chamber located deep in the heart of a palace by Italian artist Andrea Mantegna (perceived as pretentious by the narrator of the first third of the text), whose images are comprised of the various faces of people he’s met; and while painting this room, desires are born and lose their strength like sparks, inspiration runs its course and creativity takes on the look of eccentricity, diary entries are penned with several days lost in between, people pass away mysteriously with little to no resolution experienced by others, revelations are made as well as myths and half-truths, and several murders take place, with such grotesquerie feeling as though everything’s on the verge of being forgotten by a being unspoken of yet central to the text itself.
Inger Christensen is first and foremost a poet, but with the reading of this novel, I wonder as to why she isn't championed as a brilliant novelist as much as she is a writer of poetry—the lack of published literary fiction she’d written in her lifetime doesn’t justify this; and although The Painted Room merely borders on the edge of 130 pages, its broad scope captures and sustains what many fail to take on, with her economic style of writing and talent regarding how easy she makes it appear to write from various points of view.
The story is told through nonlinear plot techniques—part epistolary, part third-person, the first part of this triptych is told through the diary of a man named Marsilio, with the third and final part being written by Mantegna’s son, who delves into the mannerisms of his father, detailing his process of painting the plaster of the palace, and his rituals, creating a contrasting narrative of Mantegna compared to how he's represented in the first part of the novel; and just as what has been established with the functionality of a dying butterfly in my opening paragraph, this short work depends on the little things to move forward, for there’s a repetition at play throughout this novel: certain moments are reused and repurposed in a style which could only be considered Faulknerian at their core, with those events running their lengths from a different point of view, so, when reading this, it is important not to let the small details go over one’s head, for each aspect is used wisely to its full potential, hence Inger Christensen’s economic style.
Denise Newman’s translation renders Inger's prose as sparse but effective, flowing naturally within the mind and in the mouth when spoken, allowing the reader the privilege to read with the same ease one would have met had they known and read in the original Danish—and if Christensen were to write any more than what she'd written here, it’d disassemble all that she'd created; all in all, this book is just right, it isn’t anywhere near excessive, and yet it isn’t anywhere close to bare-boned—it’s simple, it’s complex, it’s heavy, it’s light, a culmination of oxymoronic juxtapositions, The Painted Room is a perfect kind of animal.
In my email to New Directions, I specifically mentioned small novels that're like pressure cookers, imploding within themselves with what little they really are—I will say, this novel is very much like my description of what I’d hoped this would've been; this is a class act and I'm grateful to have reviewed and read through it thoroughly before its release at the end of this month; if there's any novel one is looking forward to NDP releasing any time soon, it’s definitely this one.
[90/100]
The only reason for the rating in spite of my praise is for the fact I'm more drawn to denser prose, but this was a fresh breath of air considering the books I've read in the past; I might edit this review sometime in the future to shine a light on other aspects of it, as well as to elaborate further on some points I've made.
October 8, 2025
charming and deeply felt mystery that reminded me (in its interest in painting and general sentiment) of Peter Greenaway (Draughtman's Contract specifically). will have to read more Christensen
September 14, 2025
A picture is worth a thousand words, but a Renaissance painting is worth a three-part novella about love, intrigue, papal dalliances, and murder.
July 22, 2025
Okay so this was really good, but like: Why did I accidentally read two historical novels set in Italy involving incestuous dwarfs in as many days? (With the film Parthenope, that's also three historical novels set in Italy involving incest this month, though the latter lacks a dwarf — opting, instead, for a balloon boy-type situation, though he's not in the incest love triangle.)
Anyway. Really fun, well-written, appropriate number of references to the antipope. Deeply atmospheric. A little too much left to the reader, sometimes — mysteries go unsolved. But it's lovely.
Anyway. Really fun, well-written, appropriate number of references to the antipope. Deeply atmospheric. A little too much left to the reader, sometimes — mysteries go unsolved. But it's lovely.
December 4, 2025
3.5. Feverish and recursive. I could not get one single hold on this little mythology. So many Italian names, but also none of them really carry any weight since every person is the same and in all their disparate, murderous parts representative of human cohesion ad infinitum. Escaping from the eyes of God, but the labyrinth follows you. Death follows you. Broad, broad ideas. And clearly funny. But a funny far outside of my grasp.
A good book to remind yourself that 80% of reading is rereading. Maybe the first in a long, long time where I feel the genuine desire to reread at a later point.
A good book to remind yourself that 80% of reading is rereading. Maybe the first in a long, long time where I feel the genuine desire to reread at a later point.
Currently reading
July 21, 2025Great example of a book that you keep trying with even if you don’t understand it right away, or if the language is difficult. Really picked up, and with a little searching you find out who everyone in the stories actually were in reality. Might have to try reading it again for a proper rating, but without a doubt Inger Christensen’s writing is poetic.
September 9, 2025
The setting is the court of Ludovico Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua, patron of painter Mantegna, who is called upon to decorate a chamber. The quirky, almost oneiric tale is told respectively by Ludovico's moody secretary, his daughter, and Bernardino, the child of Mantegna. It's the Renaissance as if done by Fellini, quite striking.
May 17, 2025
A genius work by an incredible poet. Retaining all the sordid and often incestuous, often deadly gossip to the upper echelon that make media like the White Lotus so addicting, but not without profound takes on the nature of art, mortality, and the often referenced “abyss”.
November 19, 2025
A challenging novel but one I ultimately enjoyed. Longer review forthcoming.
Thanks to New Directions for the ARC.
Thanks to New Directions for the ARC.
December 12, 2025
This is the kind of gossip from the renaissance I love to hear
October 30, 2025
Inger Christensen’s The Painted Room, told in three parts, is structured like the frescoes in her story. Part 1 lays the groundwork for the piece, part 2 gives depth and highlights, and part 3 immerses the viewer into the world of the painting. While the work is technically impressive, beautifully poetic, and fascinating to sit with, I was ultimately left baffled. The writing does not lend itself to easy interpretation, at least not for those readers unaccustomed to reading narrative poetry. While I was deeply impressed with the accomplishment and immensely enjoyed our book club discussion, I found the inscrutability a barrier to my full enjoyment of the work. If you are a fan of her poetry I would still highly recommend the book. I am sure the right audience would be absolutely floored by this!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews