Renowned as an age of artistic rebirth, the Renaissance is cloaked with an aura of beauty & brilliance. But behind the Mona Lisa`s smile lurked a seamy, vicious world of power politics, perversity & corruption that has more in common with the present day than anyone dares to admit. Enter a world of corrupt bankers, greedy politicians, sex-crazed priests, rampant disease, & lives of extravagance & excess. Enter the world of the ugly Renaissance. Uncovering the hidden realities beneath the surface of the period`s best-known artworks, historian Alexander Lee takes the reader on a breathtaking & unexpected journey through the Italian past & shows that, far from being the product of high-minded ideals, the sublime monuments of the Renaissance were created by flawed & tormented artists who lived in an ever-expanding world of bigotry & hatred. The only question is: will you ever see the Renaissance in quite the same way again?