Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510)
Nastagio degli Onesti, third episode
1483
Mixed method on panel, 83.5 x 142.5 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid
These panels illustrate the Story of Nastagio degli Onesti, the eighth novel of the fifth day of Boccaccio‘s Decameron. This is the story of Nastagio, a young man from Ravenna who was rejected by the daughter of Paolo Traversari and abandoned the city to settle on its outskirts. This first panel shows Nastagio taking leave of his friends to enter a pine forest, where he sees a woman being attacked by mastiffs and pursued by a man on horseback. That man, Guido degli Anastagi, tells him that he, too, loved a young woman who didn’t care for him. Her rejection led him to suicide, but the young woman was unmoved by his death. When she, in turn, died, she was condemned to hell for her indifference. There, they were punished with this persecution, which was to be repeated every Friday for a number of years equal to the number of months the young woman had ignored him. Each time Guido caught the young woman, he was to rip out her heart and throw it to his dogs. These paintings were commissioned in 1483 by Antonio Pucci for the marriage of his son, Giannozzo, with Lucrezia Bini. The coats of arms of both families flank those of the Medici on the third panel. Specialists see Botticelli‘s hand in the overall design and in certain figures. They also detect the participation of his assistants, Bartolomeo di Giovanni and Jacopo del Sellaio. (MNP)
The other scenes:
Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510)
Nastagio degli Onesti I
1483
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510)
Nastagio degli Onesti II
1483
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510)
Nastagio degli Onesti IV
1483
Private collection
See also:
• Boccaccio, Giovanni (1313-1375): The Decameron (English)