The Tennis Court

The tennis court is the setting most frequently returned to in the novel, whereas the rest of the characters and narrative threads jump from location to location without returning to the same place for any significant length of time. In contrast, the author returns to the tennis court again and again. It is the location of a literal battle between the poet and the artist over who will win the game, but also the setting of a metaphorical battle between the forward-thinking, creative, and rule-breaking elements of society represented by Caravaggio, and the traditional, patriarchal, violent, and homophobic world represented by Quevedo.

Rome

Rome is the central setting of the novel in two senses. Firstly, the tennis match, which is the central narrative strand of the novel, takes place in Rome. Rome is Caravaggio’s home turf, giving him a natural advantage over Quevedo as most...