A Tale from the Decameron

Next up for the PeaRafflePie-treatment (please turn your head and cough) is J. W. Waterhouse's 'A Tale From The Decameron' (1916). The original painting was inspired by the book 'The Decameron'; a collection of tales by Italian author, poet, humanist, and insane body-popper Giovanni Boccaccio. Written around 1350 during the outbreak of the Plague in Florence, the book finds seven young women and three young men escape to the countryside to avoid becoming plague-fodder. Once at home in their lush new country villa, the group take turns in telling each other stories for ten days ('decameron' is literally sexy old foreign-speak for 'ten days', doncha know.... oh you didn't?... well now you do.... go impress your friends).

Each of the days ends with a canzone (mmm... calzone), a song performed by the storyteller, hence these guys in the painting rocking their lutes.I like to imagine this fella has just told a kickass story and is now gonna blow these ladies' minds with a little mash-up of "Stairway to Heaven" and "Sex On Fire". Obviously he's the focal point of the piece. Their gaze is transfixed on him, as are those of the two sneaky latecomers at the back there. But this is nicely counterbalanced by green dress lady at the end, who is clearly more interested in fiddling with the flowers. I like her style. Which is exactly why I chose to paint her, oh and the pink dress lady in front of her (mainly because she's in the way... bitch.)

Waterhouse also painted an illustration of one of the stories told in 'The Decameron'. 'The Enchanted Garden' (1916-7) is a tale of an indecent proposal, a summer garden in winter, magic, intrigue, lust and a wise-cracking dolphin. Coming soon to Disney 3-D.

Nb. Sometimes I talk bollocks.

Watermark not on print-for-sale through Etsy.com.