Jean-Jacques Lequeu, Et  Nous Aussi Nous Serons Meres, 1740

"If I thought thou wouldst keep the secret, I would tell thee what I have sometimes meditated, and which thou perhaps mightest also find agreeable."  - Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

In the first story of the third day in The Decameron, Masetto, pretends to be dumb to get hired to work in a nunnery and to sleep with the nuns. This plan works out perfectly for Masetto at first. The nuns, curious and lusty, take advantage of the dumb gardener and his inability (or so they think), to let their dirty little secret out of the bag. But be careful what you wish for because you just might get it all. Masetto soon becomes overwhelmed with the constant attention he receives from all the nuns and simply cannot abide to their requests anymore. He eventually leaves the nunnery.

When I first saw this painting by Jean-Jacques Lequeu, I immediately thought of the nun story in The Decameron. The nun appears to promiscuous like the nuns in the story, but what I found interesting is that her face does not match the sexuality of her body. She has an innocent face which may have been painted to show deceitfulness. She is only human, and humans are naturally curious and have desires. I believe Lequeu is trying to send the message that if a nun was given the chance to sin without being caught she would. In the story in The Decameron, every nun sleeps with the gardener because they believe him to be too dumb to be able to expose them of their sins. The nun in this painting would no doubt join them.