The first day of class we discussed Giotto and the day's case study was a film clip from Pasolini's The Decameron which is based on Boccaccio's novel of the same name. In our second session we discussed a little more about Giotto and were also able to view some paintings from Botticelli. I would like to use this blog post to discuss Botticelli's The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti which is based on one particular story in Boccaccio's The Decameron. The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti is made up of four panels depicting different scenes from Day Five, Story Eight.
A small description taken from The Decameron:
"A rejected suitor, Nastagio degli Onesti, meets a vengeful horseman and a distressed damsel in a pine-wood and learns their story; it gives him just what he needs to convert the heart of his cruel lady." (Boccaccio, 362)
The Encounter with the Damned in the Pine Forest. (First Panel)
An excerpt from The Decameron about what Nastagio sees:
“It was a little after eleven in the morning, and he had penetrated a good half-mile into the woods, quite oblivious of food or anything else, when all of a sudden he thought he heard great cries and shrieks—a woman’s voice. This broke into his gentle meditation and, looking up to see what it was about, he was surprised to find himself in the pine-wood. As he gazed, he saw the most beautiful girl running towards where he was standing, through a thicket choked with undergrowth and brambles; she was naked, disheveled, and scratched all over by twigs and thorns, and she was shrieking for mercy. He saw two ferocious great mastiffs at her heels and flanks, who kept snapping savagely at her wherever they could. Behind her he saw a dark rider on a black horse; he looked wrathful and was threatening to kill her, as he showered on her the most dreadful insults; in his hand he held a dagger.” (Boccaccio 363)
The man riding the horse is Guido degli Anastagi. He is positioned above the woman. According to the author Jill M Ricketts in her book Visualizing Boccaccio, Guido’s “superior position and his red cape and sheath, foreshadow the gruesome nature of her death.” (Ricketts, 60)
The Infernal Hunt. (Second Panel)
An excerpt from The Decameron:
“The moment he stopped speaking he [Guido] brandished his dagger and hurled himself at the maiden like a savage hound; she was kneeling down in the grip of the two mastiffs, and shrieked for mercy, but he thrust at her with all of his might, running his blade into the middle of her breast and out through her back. Thus transfixed, the girl fell prone, still crying and yelling, while the horseman reached for a knife, slit open her back, and ripped out her heart with all the adjacent organs and tossed them to the two mastiffs, who devoured them on the spot.” (Boccaccio, 365)
We can see in this second panel how Botticelli has composed a scene that juxtaposes extreme violence with the peaceful surroundings.
The Banquet in the Pine Forest. (Third Panel)
Directly after what we see in the second panel, the woman who has just been slaughtered rises up as if nothing has happened and Guido mounts his horse and begins to chase her all over again. It is explained that both Guido and the woman are dead. Guido killed himself over his unrequited love for the woman and he is doomed to hunt her for all eternity. The woman, due to her cold heart is doomed to flee from him. The scene Nastagio has witnessed will occur every Friday at the same time, without end .
Nastagio himself loves a woman who does not love him back. The third panel depicts the setup Nastagio has created to win over the woman he loves.
The dinner party depicted is “dedicated to frightening women into sexual submission” (Ricketts, 79) and we can see this through the way the women have all been seated together and have a front view of the gruesome scene.
It is also important to note that the women at the table have similar features to the nude woman Guido pursues and kills. Botticelli uses this resemblance to “imply that all the women were collectively affected...and that they were all potential victims.” (Ricketts, 85) Because of the possibility that they too could end up like this nude woman, the women’s response is exactly what Nastagio intended, which was “deferring to the men’s desires.”(85)
The Wedding Banquet. (Fourth Panel)
After witnessing this terrifying occurrence, there is fear instilled in every woman in town and the woman Nastagio is in love with agrees to marry him and the wedding occurs the following week.
The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti was made as a wedding gift for Gianozzo di Antonio Pucci and Lucrezia di Piero di Giovanni Bini, whose marriage was arranged by Lorenzo de Medici (also known as Lorenzo Magnifico).
In this fourth panel we see the crests on either side of the table, one belonging to the Bini family, the other belonging to the Pucci family.
If we look back at the third panel we can also see prominently displayed in the center is the Medici scudo with the six balls. Its center position signifies the important role of the Medici family in this union.
-Carmen Cowick
Works Cited:
Boccaccio, Giovanni, Jonathan Usher, and Guido Waldman. The Decameron. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.
Ricketts, Jill M. Visualizing Boccaccio. New York: Cambridge UP, 1997. Print.
