A Face in Two Movements: Noma Bar’s Cover illustration for The Instrumentalist
For The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable, illustrator Noma Bar composes a clever visual duet. Known for his signature use of negative space, Bar’s cover art sets the tone for this historical novel set in 18th-century Venice.
The image depicts protagonist Anna Maria della Pietà in two opposing states. One profile, head uplifted, catches the elation of a virtuoso lost in performance. The other turns downward—a nod to Anna Maria’s dreams of drowning, a motif threaded through her journey. It’s a striking piece of graphic storytelling, evoking both the weight of ambition and the pull of water in Venice’s shadowed canals.
As Anna trains under Vivaldi at the Ospedale della Pietà, her story resonates with themes of gender, genius, and survival.
📖 Synopsis
Set in early 18th‑century Venice, this historical novel traces the journey of Anna Maria della Pietà—an orphan dropped off at the Ospedale della Pietà as a baby. She emerges as a musical prodigy, raised within the orphanage’s elite girls’ orchestra under the tutelage of Antonio Vivaldi. Anna Maria's ambition, talent, and synesthetic experience of music propel her to stardom—yet her rise pits her brilliance against the constraints of gender, the exploitation of patronage, and the complex relationship with Vivaldi himself, as her artistry begins to eclipse his legacy
https://www.amazon.com/Instrumentalist-Harriet-Constable/dp/1668035820
Published by Simon & Schuster.
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