The Artist's Heart: Florence, April 1475

The first time Alessandra Pazzi saw true art, she understood that her life had been a beautiful lie.

She stood in the shadows of Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop, disguised as a servant to commission a painting her father would never approve of, when a stranger's voice made her forget every lesson in propriety she had ever learned.

"The way you've captured the light on her hands?it's as if she's actually glowing from within."

The man speaking was Lorenzo de' Medici, enemy of her blood, heir to everything her family despised. But in that moment, as he discussed the sacred mysteries of pigment and vision with the reverence other men reserved for prayer, Alessandra realised that some truths transcend the accidents of birth.

Neither of them knew, as their eyes met across a workshop filled with half-finished miracles, that their love would nearly destroy Florence itself. Neither could foresee that in three years' time, their families' ancient hatred would explode into conspiracy and bloodshed in the most sacred space in the city.