Lemon Library Book Club: The Beauty and the Terror
February 4, 2026 | 6:30 pm
Location: The Amphitheater inside Phoenix Art Museum
TICKETS: Free event. Please reserve your ticket and check in at the Visitor Services Desk.
February’s Book of the Month is The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of the West by Catherine Fletcher. Selected to provide deeper historical context for the current exhibition Florentine Baroque: The Haukohl Collection, this work examines the tumultuous reality behind a celebrated era of art history.
While the exhibition showcases the refined, poetic restraint of the Baroque period (spanning the early 17th to mid-18th centuries), Fletcher’s book reveals the complex history that preceded it. The splendor and cultural triumphs of the age emerged from a Renaissance characterized not just by art, but by war, slavery, and oppression. Join the discussion to explore the darker side of this magnificent opulence.
This program is intended for audiences 18 years and older.