Early 16th century Florence, Italy during The Renaissance, a young noble lady named Arte of the Spalletti family indulges herself in the pursuit of art. Joining the workshop of a grumpy artist named Leo, she slowly becomes more involved in the world of painters, while also finding her own footing as a woman in a world dominated by men.
Arte is a manga series by Kei Ohkubo, which began serialization in the seinen magazine Monthly Comic Zenon in 2013.
An anime was made by Seven Arcs which premiered on April 4, 2020.
The anime and manga provide examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: The anime skips over several arcs of Arte's early life with Leo and her relationship with the rest of the Florence characters is extremely brushed over. Veronica and Angelo barely get a focus episode each, and Darcia's whole arc where she meets Arte and starts getting reading lessons from her is skipped: she's suddenly introduced to the audience in a Remember the New Guy? way. These changes were made in order to focus on Arte's stay in Venice as the anime's final arc, which also gets several chapters skipped compared to the manga.
- And the Adventure Continues: The anime finishes with Arte helping Leo paint a fresco where she includes all the people important to her, and insinuates she'll stay in Leo's workshop to keep learning.
- Artistic License – History: The main premise—a Plucky Girl working hard to rise up the ranks in the all-male and openly misogynistic world of Italian Renaissance art and proving her detractors wrong with her work ethic and determination—is called into question by the fact that quite a few famed female artists in Renaissance Italy existed, such as Sofonisba Anguissola
, who later became court painter to Philip II of Spain. All of Anguissola's extant writings and correspondences suggest that she was treated with respect in the art world from a young age not only because of her talent but also because professional artists, who largely came from the merchant and laborer classes, would not dare speak ill of a noblewoman. The manga's portrayal of the Renaissance art world as not only exclusively male but openly hostile to any woman trying to enter it seems to be much more exaggerated than it actually was—since Arte is of noble birth, in reality, historical evidence suggests that there would be little to no chance that she would have been mocked to her face for trying to become an artist like in the series. - Disappeared Dad: Arte's father passed away a month before the series starts. It hit her hard because he was the only one who supported her dreams and ambitions.
- Evolving Credits: The picture frames in the end credits have shots from that episode.
- Feminist Fantasy: Not that there weren't female painters in the Renaissance, but Arte's story is very much "first wave" feminist story of a woman taking on a male-dominated world and succeeding within it, rather than the "third wave" feminism of trying to change the system itself.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: With the story being centered during the Renaissance, it definitely showcases aspects of the world that were common during its time, most prominently sexism.
- Gratuitous Italian: With the story being set in Italy, the dub's dialogue puts in some Italian here and there.
- Hired Help as Family: As a baby, Catalina was basically exiled to the countryside by her father for being born a girl. She was raised by a nurse named Buona, whom she firmly deemed her true mother in spite of how often Buona tried to remind her charge of the class difference.
- Important Haircut: In the first chapter/episode, after Arte has been turned away by artists too many times for being a woman, she angrily renounces her gender and lops off her long hair. She almost does the same to her breasts until Leo intervenes.
- Impossible Task: Multiple times:
- Before he accepts Arte's apprenticeship, Leo orders her to have all of his drawing boards primed by the time he returned, not expecting her to succeed. She does, and an impressed Leo agrees to mentor her.
- Later Master Danilo doesn't want her to stick around and sketch his sculptures, so orders her to carry 10 heavy bags of clay that normally takes 2 men to move. She manages to move them all, impressing Danilo just like the earlier task impressed Leo.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: A short manga crossing Arte with My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! was released in July 2020.
- One-Word Title: First Name of Protagonist Title.
- Protagonist Title: One-Word Title of first name, style.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: Arte develops a teenage crush on Leo, and starts to act this way until Veronica snaps her out of it.
- You Remind Me of X: Leo sees a lot of his younger self in Arte, not only because of her passion for drawing, but also her wish to live life on her own terms.
