She studied art in Italy and went on a pilgrimage to see every Michelangelo on display in Europe. She has a degree in Fine Arts from Vanderbilt University and an MFA from Emerson College. Stephanie Storey is a writer and art fanatic. Oil and Marble will make readers long for Florence and to see David in the morning light.' -Elizabeth Cobbs, author of Broken Promises: A Civil War Novel, and the upcoming Hamilton Affair. 'With every chip of the chisel and stroke of the brush, Stephanie Storey fashions a mesmerizing tale of the envy, ambition, and artistic genius that drove an epic rivalry. “Tremendously entertaining and 'unapologetic in its artistic license, Oil and Marble will remind an older generation of the pleasures of Irving Stone’s art historical fiction.” -Maxwell Carter, The New York Times. Oil and Marble is the story of their nearly forgotten rivalry. Michelangelo both loathes and worships Leonardo's genius. Leonardo despises Michelangelo for his youth and lack of sophistication. Her name is Lisa, and she becomes his muse. Meanwhile, Leonardo's life is falling apart: he loses the hoped-for David commission he can’t seem to finish any project he is obsessed with his ungainly flying machine he almost dies in war his engineering designs disastrously fail and he is haunted by a woman he has seen in the market: a merchant's wife, whom he is finally commissioned to paint.

Working against an impossible deadline, he begins his feverish carving. Living at the foot of his misshapen block of marble, Michelangelo struggles until the stone finally begins to speak. Even though his impoverished family shuns him for being an artist, he is desperate to support them. Michelangelo is a virtual unknown when he returns to Florence and wins the commission to carve what will become one of the most famous sculptures of all time: David. Michelangelo was a temperamental sculptor in his mid-twenties, desperate to make a name for himself. Leonardo was a charming, handsome fifty year-old at the peak of his career.

The Hickory Stick Bookshop will host Gilmore Girls actor, Mike Gandolfi (“Andrew”) and his wife, Stephanie Storey, for a signing of her new book, Oil and Marble (Arcade Publishing, $24.99) on Saturday, October 22 nd at 10am.įrom 1501-1505, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti both lived and worked in Florence.

Oil and marble by stephanie storey