Although the first volume of Arte is more like the first issue (in comic book terms), making its price feel a little steep, the story is well worth it. Appearing to be loosely based on the Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi, the first woman admitted to the prestigious Accademia di Arte e Disengno in Florence, the story introduces Arte herself as a young woman trying to break free from the social expectations that she must marry or become a nun, because no woman could possibly be happy single and working. When Arte's mother, in a bid to make her daughter do as she wants, burns all of Arte's work in a bonfire, Arte picks herself up and heads into Firenze (Florence) in order to prove that she can do it.

Of course, that means convincing the men of the art world, which is more daunting than her mother, and I admit that Gentileschi's story did make me worry that Kei Okubo would hew a little too close to some of the sexual violence young Artemisia experienced. Fortunately that does not seem to be the case, and instead Arte takes power from her anger and gets herself into the studio of a young man named Leo, where she manages to prove herself against his expectations. In only fifty-six pages, Okubo gives us a complete story of a girl's determination to rise above what people expect of her and begin to live up to what she expects of herself, and that's some good reading material.

It helps that Okubo's art is beautiful. It's most similar to Kaoru Mori's work in its level of detail and historical accuracy, with great care having been taken with Arte's dress, the city of Firenze itself, and even the fact that everything looks vaguely dirty once Arte leaves the family manor. That does make the translation a bit of an issue; anachronistic “okay” (and in one case just “k”) and other similar language stands out as jarring, as does the use of the word “Sisyphean” in conjunction with the modern slang. It doesn't need to be Shakespearean, but erring on the side of formal with some consistency would help set the Renaissance mood.

Be that as it may, Arte is off to a good start, and I'm excited to read more. Seeing how her relationship with Leo develops alongside her art during a time when women weren't much more than ornaments is going to be an exciting ride.