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Main characters
Arte
Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu (Japanese), Felecia Angelle (English)
A noblewoman who loves art with passion. After the recent death of her father, she's expected to be married off to a nobleman. Instead, Arte decides to dedicate her life to art and prove that she can become independent without relying on a wealthy husband. Her unwavering determination lets her become the apprentice of the painter Leo, the only one who never looks down on her for being a woman.
- Allergic to Love: Her crush on Leo causes her to get overly nervous, blush like crazy and have a hard time breathing when he gets too close to her or touches her. This makes her think she's sick at first.
- Ambigously Bi: Arte's general innocence and lack of romantic understanding makes it all very hard to parse, but while outside observers almost universally agree she has a huge crush on Leo, she's also repeatedly turned into a blushing, dumbstruck mess by the feminine beauty and charms of women like Veronica and Sofia.
- The Apprentice: The series begins with Arte becoming Leo's art apprentice.
- Boyish Short Hair: She cuts her hair short in the first chapter/episode, reflecting her strive for independency and spirited personality.
- Determinator: Nothing will discourage her from pursuing her dream of becoming an artist.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: As the manga goes on, her hair grows to signify time passing and Arte accepting both her condition as a woman and as a painter. In the anime, it reaches shoulder-length by the time she comes back from Venice.
- Fiery Redhead: Her hair is strawberry blonde and she's definitely passionate about her love for art.
- Hot for Teacher: She has a crush on her art mentor Leo.
- Important Haircut: In the first chapter/episode, she cuts her hair to prove that she's ready to give up living as a woman to become an artist.
- Limited Wardrobe: In the anime, Arte only wears two dresses: the green one from the first manga volume cover and the blue one from the fourth manga cover.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Arte's name, at least, is probably based on Artemisia Gentileschi, despite the artist living a century later than Arte is set.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Leo was worried that watching a human dissection would be too much for Arte, but instead, she's excited about it and enthusiastically draws human organs as she does with everything.
- Not Like Other Girls: Arte is not the least bit concerned with the expectations (be pretty and marry well) her time period has for women. She is outspoken, enthusiastic, and likes to get her hands dirty. The way she doesn't shy away from manual labor usually saved for men and staff surprises people at best and angers them at worst.
- Plucky Girl: Optimistic, hardworking, and never letting anything get her down.
- Showing Up Chauvinists: She has to put in a lot of effort to succeed as a female artist, but once she gets over the hurdles, she turns out to have an advantage in a different area, as being a noblewoman does give her opportunities that the former beggar Leo doesn't, such as her work in Venice.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She has a teenage crush on Leo because he's the only man who never treats her as inferior for her gender and like her father, he calls her charming for being so hardworking and passionate about art instead of a docile doll-like lady.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Leo disguises her as a boy when he takes her to make sketches of a human dissection. Averted the rest of the time, as she is openly trying to be a female artist.
- Trying Not to Cry: Whenever she feels like crying, she holds back the tears because Men Don't Cry and she doesn't want to be seen as vulnerable for being a woman.
Leo
Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (Japanese), Gianni Matragrano (English)
A painter with a past as a beggar. After some initial reluctance, he accepts to take Arte as his apprentice.
- Accidental Pervert: In Episode 3, he gives Arte an Over-the-Shoulder Carry which results in him incidentally touching her butt.
- Brutal Honesty: He does not mince any words when he tells Arte she's "thoughtlessly optimistic and honest to a fault".
- Mentor Archetype: He takes Arte in as his art disciple after recognizing her determination.
- Named After Somebody Famous: "Leo" is clearly meant to invoke Leonardo da Vinci, but our Leo is not the same man at all. Da Vinci would be very old at the time this is set (He died in 1519).
- Self-Made Man: He grew up as a beggar on the streets of Florence and struggled to make it on his own as a painter.
- Stern Teacher: He's never soft with Arte and the tasks he gives her are very hard, but he does praise her spirit and dedication.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He's the emotional kind of person, coming across as aloof and stern because of his rough past. He can show a more gentle side of himself to Arte from time to time.
- When He Smiles: Arte blushes the first time she sees his smiles and muses about wanting to see him smile more.
- You Remind Me of X: At first, Leo thought Arte was just a spoiled noblewoman who would never understand how hard it is to make a living as a painter. Soon enough, Arte's resolve to prove that she can live independently by doing what she loves causes Leo to see his younger self reflected in Arte, which is why he accepts her as his disciple.
Angelo Parker
Voiced by: Jun'ya Enoki (Japanese), Wayne Grayson (English)
A young sculptor apprentice. He comes from a relatively wealthy family, but was forced to go to the shop to help his father put aside the money necessary to pay the dowry of his five sisters. He becomes attracted to Arte almost immediately after meeting her.
- Condescending Compassion: His father taught him to take good care of his sisters who depend on him for all manual work. Because of this, Angelo believes women are fragile and need to be protected by strong men. A highly independent lady like Arte doesn't like Angelo trying to do things for her because that's the same as saying she can't do anything for being a woman.
- Innocently Insensitive: He means well when being kind to women, but Arte doesn't take his offers of help too kindly given that the male dominant society they live in makes her think Angelo is looking down on her like everyone else. She soon realizes she was rude to Angelo and apologizes, although she still refuses to rely on his help.
- Nice Guy: He's a friendly, kind, and polite guy. Although, his niceness is portrayed as something of a flaw at first because it makes him something of a Extreme Doormat to his sisters until Arte changes his opinion about women not being able to take care of themselves.
Supporting characters
Yuri
Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (Japanese), Doug Erholtz (English)
A Venetian nobleman and skilled merchant.
- Cool Uncle: To Catalina, as he allows her to freely pursue her interest in cooking and lets her make meals for him at his home.
- The Gadfly: Getting under people's skin is his favourite pastime.
Veronica
Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese), Erica Schroeder (English)
A rich courtesan who is a frequent client of Leo's shop.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Veronica's response to learning Arte is attracted to Leo is to show her a former courtesan who fell on hard times because she fell in love. Veronica hopes this disturbing sight will convince Arte to concentrate on her career and not be misled by her heart.
- High-Class Call Girl: She's the most desired courtesan in Florence.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: A case of Good Is Not Soft; While Veronica is not a bad person in any way, her line of work requires shrewdness. Nonetheless, she is a friendly person and supports her mother and younger siblings.
- The Vamp: Part of her job involves playing with men's hearts and feelings. Arte, who originally has quite the girl-crush on Veronica and doesn't mind that her job involves physical prostitution, has a mild Broken Pedestal reaction when she sees how miserable and jealous over her one of her customers is when she's playing hard to get.
Catalina
Voiced by: M・A・O (Japanese), Michelle Marie (English)
The eldest daughter of a family of noble merchants and among the oldest in Venice.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She puts on a shy, sweet little angel act in front of her mother.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Had absolutely no one to look out for her best interest before Yuri brought Arte to Venice.
- Parental Neglect: Catalina's father Marta honestly can't stand her because she's a girl and not a boy like he wanted, and Catalina is well aware of his distaste for her.
- Parting-Words Regret: When Buona, Catalina's wet nurse, tries to tell her that she has to go back to her real mother, Catalina doesn't want to because she's lived her life in the country with her and her son Gimo, thinking of them as family. When Buona tries to make her return to parents she's never even met or known, because it was the norm for wet nurses to raise the children of nobility until a certain age back in the 15th century, Catalina yells that she hates her and runs away...but not long after, Buona died, and Catalina never got to say goodbye to her or Gimo.
- Royal Brat: She likes talking down to her servants and tutors because she knows none of them would dare scold her. Giving Arte this treatment is her Establishing Character Moment.
- Sleepyhead: Instead of listening to Arte's lessons, she spends the sessions napping. The truth is she is making sure she's well-rested to stay up all night reading cookbooks.
- Supreme Chef: Catalina is passionate about cooking, and has already become quite the chef despite her youth.
Darcia
Voiced by: Kiyono Yasuno (Japanese), Marissa Lenti (English)
A seamstress and friend of Arte.
- Demoted to Extra: Her whole arc is skipped in the anime, where she's just introduced as a female friend of Arte's, but we never see their meeting nor how Arte starts teaching her to read.
- Interclass Friendship: Darcia is a commoner and Arte is a noblewoman, but they get along as if they were equals.
- Never Learned to Read: Arte is helping to remedy this.
Sofia
Voiced by: Rie Tanaka (Japanese), Natalie Van Sistine (English)
Yuri's sister-in-law and Catalina's mother, a Venetian noblewoman.
- Parents as People: Not only does Sofia struggle as a woman in a man's world, she was absent for Catalina's early years and does not know how to be a proper mother. Nevertheless, she loves Catalina and, once she acknowledges the aforementioned hindrances, she resolves to do right by her daughter.
Daphne
Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu (Japanese), Lisa Ortiz (English)
A chambermaid working in Lady Sofia's household.
