Botticelli and Workshop Further Episodes in the Tale of Nastagio degli Onesti Previous | Home | Next

Date: 1482/83 84 X 142 cm Madrid, Museo del Prado

Nastagio was deeply moved by this story and realized how alike his situation was to that of this weekly scene. He decided to find purpose in this event and devise a plan. He wanted to shock his true love and her family by introducing them to this scene. This began the third painting.

Nastagio invited the woman he loved and her family to a formal banquet in the woods. He explained to his friends that he was over this woman and was once and for all going to tell her goodbye. Nastagio timed the luncheon just right so that their festivities would be interrupted by the devastating scene he had witnessed. He positioned the women at the table so they would be in direct vision of the hunt thus getting the most terror and shock out of the scene. When the woman and the dogs came running towards the guests and hunter caught up to her, chaos broke out and Nastagio is shown to be clam and in control of the situation.

The next part of the story was expected to be known by those looking at the painting and is not shown by Botticelli. After Anastagio kills the woman, he tells the sad story of why he was there; unrequited love was the cause for this weekly terror. The daughter of Paolo Traversari was so moved by the story that she finally decided to open her heart to Nastagio and she agreed to marry him. The wedding banquet is the last painting in Botticelli’s four part Nastagio series. Boccaccio did not actually describe what he wrote in this tale, but Botticelli painted a beautiful rendition of what may have happened.

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