The Gates of Hell

Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin, The Gates of Hell, 1880-1917

"Whereto the Jew promptly answered, 'Meseemeth, God give them ill one and all! And I say this for that, if I was able to observe aright, no piety, no devoutness, no good work or example of life or otherwhat did I see there in any who was a churchman; nay, but lust, covetise, gluttony and the like and worse (if worse can be) meseemed to be there in such favour with all that I hold it for a forgingplace of things diabolical rather than divine…”

They say heaven is a place on earth, and apparently, hell is too. And that place is Rome, according to Abraham the Jew of The Decameron’s 2nd story. He details the evils in Rome he saw on an excursion to the “holy city,” including (but not limited to) gluttony, thievery, and lechery.  His Christian friend was sure that if the Jew went to Rome, he would surely be turned off by the rampant degradation. The Jew observed the sins of the Christians and cardinals of Rome and was completely and utterly disgusted… and intrigued. The punch line of the story is that the Jew decides to convert to Christianity even, or rather, especially after viewing the atrocities of the Christian people. Yes, you can laugh. Corruption is comedy, after all.

The story tries to teach us a larger lesson about humanity, how no one is spared from sin no matter how highly you laud yourself. The deterioration of integrity is apparent on both sides and the pursuit of pleasure trumps all morals. The culmination of this depravity is in Rome. When the Jew enters the city, miscreants and criminals welcome him, much like entering through Rodin’s Gates of Hell. Vagrants, thieves, and degenerates lurk in every crevice and around every corner. Figures from the Old Testament adorn the Gates, which were modeled after Dante’s Inferno, and other characteristics of the sculpture were taken from medieval cathedrals. Christianity is everywhere, however not all of it is holy. 

I'm not entirely sure which religion Giovanni Boccaccio is satirzing more, Judaism or Christianity. The Jew's loose morals allow him to be swayed by the enticements of Christianity. And the Christian church he depicts is just a mess of corruption and decadence and all things sinful. The message here isn't about a particular religion, but all religion. No matter what you get out of the story -- maybe a hearty laugh or a moral lesson -- the truths of this medieval adventure still ring true today. 

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Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve
Peter Paul Rubens, Adam and Eve, 1598

The first story of the third day in The Decameron begins with Masetto of Lamporecchio pretending to be deaf mute and becoming a gardener at a convent. While working in the garden, Masetto discovers the nuns of the convent disregard their faithfulness to God in order to fulfill their "feminine longings." Eventually, the nun's craving for lust overwhelms Masetto, as he unlocks his lips and confesses about the nuns' sins.

In this story, Boccaccio mocks the status of women, created by male and religious dominance, in the 14th century. During this time period, young women were obligated to preserve their virginity or marry into wealth and motherhood; those who couldn't afford to marry off were often sent to convents to prevent impurity. Boccaccio utilizes the setting of the garden to parallel Masetto and the first nun to Adam and Eve.

The first nun states, "I wonder, whether you have ever considered what a strict life we have to lead, and how the only men who ever dare step foot in this place are the steward, who is elderly, and this dumb gardener of ours. Yet I have often heard it said, by several of the ladies who have come to visit us, that all the pleasures in the world are mere trifles by comparison with the one experienced by a woman when she goes with a man."

This sexual curiosity emulates that of Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden, which is also illustrated in Eve's gaze at Adam in Rubens Adam and Eve. Intrigued by this intimacy, the nun argues, "We are constantly making Him promises that we never keep! He can always find other girls to preserve their virginity for Him." This temptation to sleep with Masetto and encouragement of the other nuns to follow the first nun, echoes the first nun's defiance of God much like Eve's defiance of God when she eats the fruit and then tempts Adam to join her.

However, Boccaccio's short story addresses the overarching theme of human nature and the inability to suppress such instincts. Despite the nuns' faithfulness to God, the opportunity to satisfy the women's sexual curiosity outweighs the obligations of an ideal young woman in the 14th century. Portrayed in Adam and Eve, Rubens outlines sexual tension between Adam and Eve, further supporting that this instinctual desire cannot be prevented. Resonating with Boccaccio's tale of the convent, the author leaves us questioning if the nuns' actions were indeed sinful, as the nuns conclusively look to God once again for forgiveness.

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Juliet

John William Waterhouse


John William Waterhouse, Juliet, 1898

You see her. She is the picture-perfect adolescent girl with pearly skin and carmine lips. She clings to a necklace with quiet yearning. You think briefly that her eyes have locked with yours, but her far reaching stare says otherwise. Her name is Juliet, and her ambitions are decidedly beyond what’s in front of her.

The Decameron’s Ghismonda from the Fourth Day, First Story shares quite a bit in common with Shakespeare’s Juliet. Both are victims of their own undoing -- culminations of romanticized desperation and familial betrayal. Yet, there’s something engaging about concentrating on these young ladies as individuals, disregarding their respective ‘Romeos.’ Romeo and Juliet is likely something we don’t need to review, but not everyone’s heard of Ghismonda’s tale. The story of Ghismonda can be summarized like so: Ghismonda falls in love with Guiscardo, a man her father (Tancred) does not approve of. Tancred decides that he’ll send his daughter Guiscardo’s heart in a cup. Ghismonda stricken with grief but also somewhat unsurprised by her father’s actions, kisses the heart. She then fills the cup with poison and commits suicide. Sounds like your typical romantic tragedy, right?

Still, there’s something we recognize about these stories other than: “don’t be a jerkwad to your kids!” or “stop glamorizing dependency issues!” It’s about women who have wills that transcend the patriarchal cage they’ve been placed in, and their willingness to rebel. Though Ghismonda’s acts of disobedience wouldn’t entirely be feminist (her actions are still centered around fatal attachment to Guiscardo, after all), it still represents a divergence from her father’s firm grasp. She tells Tancred, with a tinge of sarcasm, “It should have been manifest to thee, Tancred, being as thou art flesh and blood, that thou hadst begotten a daughter of flesh and blood and not of iron or stone.” She goes on to beg for her lover’s life, her perceptiveness of her father’s ways twisting her plea into a brash argument of her frustrations, telling her father to “begone!”

It’s in these subtleties we can find morsels of a woman’s independent thought in the strictest of male-centric societies, despite the griminess of the rose-colored narratives of suicidal infatuations in which they appear. Hence, John William Waterhouse’s Juliet possesses an exquisiteness past simple grace and beauty. Though her pose is one of longing, her look commands incentive, thought, and undeniable presence.

Juliet’s character Romeo and Juliet is defined by her relationship with Romeo and their foolhardy, self-serving behavior. Consequently, we view Romeo and Juliet as two halves of a whole. Perhaps this explains why looking at a picture of Juliet -- and only Juliet -- throws me off. What sort of story would such an impulsive girl have without meeting Romeo?

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Le Coup au Coeur

Le Coup au Coeur
Rene Magritte, Le Coup au Coeur, 1952

When seeing Rene Magritte's Le Coup au Coeur it immediately reminded me of the fifth novel on the fourth day of The Decameron. The tale is about a young women named Isabella who falls in love with a man, but she must keep it secret from her brothers. Her brothers find out that she has a secret affair, and they go off to kill Lorenzo, Isabella's lover. She finds out and is heartbroken. Lorenzo comes to her in a dream and she figures out the truth. Isabella, enticed by her love, goes to where he was killed by her brothers and digs up her lovers body. She cuts off his head, wraps it in a napkin, and brings it back to her room where she plants it in a basil pot. Isabella becomes obsessed with her basil and does nothing else but tend to it and water it. He brothers become infuriated with her obsession and take her prized basil plant away. She dies a few days later from being heartbroken.

 Le Coup au Coeur in French translates to The Blow to the Heart. This is exactly what happens to Isabella, she is in love with Lorenzo but takes a blow to the heart when her selfish brothers viciously murder him. The bright and vivid rose symbolizes the love Isabella has for Lorenzo and later her basil plant. The basil plant flourished with all the care Isabella put in to it. The brilliant rose dazzles the viewers to see love, but the thorns are replaced by a stinging dagger. The dagger is a symbol for the hatred Isabella had for her brothers and for her lose of her love.


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Et Nous Aussi Nous Serons Meres and The Decameron

Et Nous Aussi Nous Serons Meres

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.

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Portrait of a Young Girl and The Decameron

Danielle Fleming
Giovanni Battista Moroni, Portrait of a Young Girl,  1564

A rare portrait of someone so young, this young girl posing in such elegant clothing reflects the image of a young Ghismonda, placed on a pedestal by her obsessive father. In the first story of the fourth day in The Decameron, the possessive Tancredi, Prince of Salerno, kills his daughter’s secret lover because of his lack of rank. The daughter, Ghismonda, in grief, drinks her dead lover's heart blood with poison, and dies. Giovanni’s Portrait of A Young Girl follows the beginning of this same pattern.

Embellished with pearls, the young girl stiffly looks straight at the painter. However her hand’s playfulness lead the reminder of the child behind the parental decoration. Similarly, Ghismonda’s suppression, and overwhelming devotion brought upon her by her father ultimately led her to yield “to a man who was not [her] husband.”  The fact he was of lower rank shows her rebellion against the standard her father unknowingly provided her. It was the elaborating, and smothering of his daughter that Tancredi went wrong. When I see Portrait of a Young Girl, I see a wealthy child forced to pose for hours, in order to add a prop to her family’s household. The child is a prop that the family would be unwilling “to part with,” just as Tancredi feels about Ghismonda 

However, the bond Tancredi holds for his daughter surpasses any usual father daughter love. The obsession stage the Portrait of a Young Girl is in is only but a stage of every father/daughter relationship, and the daughter naturally will grow up, and be her own person-separate from her father’s image. But, Tancredi never outgrows this phase. Tancredi “was so devoted to her that he was in no hurry to make her a second marriage,” because letting her go the first time was hard enough of such a possessive man. Although odds are, the young girl in Moroni's portrait did not drink her dead lover’s heart besprinkled with poison, she probably did rebel against her father’s adornment at one time.
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Christ's Descent into Hell

1550-60

Christ's Descent into Hell
Hieronymous Bosch (?), Christ's Decent into Hell, 1550-1560

"If you don't let me in, I shall make you the sorriest man on earth. To which Tofano replied: And how are you going to do that?" - Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

As often depicted in all sorts of media and entertainment, Tofano confronts a classic ultimatum. After locking his wife out of the house, which under no circumstance would ever end in his favor, she responded in the most rational of ways. Monna, his wife, decided to cleverly fake her death by throwing a massive stone down into a well. Naturally, this scares the living daylights out of Tofano as he quickly becomes aware of his what his fate will be if he is blamed for her death. With either his reputation or his head on the line, Tofano quickly makes his way to the well to find that he had been played. Now was the one locked out of the house.

Christ's Descent into Hell accurately reflects Tofano's mindset as the impact at the bottom of the well echoes through his ears. Everything goes downhill from that point on and his and Tofano is forced to fear the worst. Instantly terrified that he will be accused of murder, Tofano fears he will have to go through hell to survive his predicament. Regardless of avoiding death or forced fleeing, Tofano is still left with being simply outwitted by his wife.

Although relationship ultimatums have been used in modern entertainment, none will ever come close to the beautifully dramatized conditions that Tofano is confronted with. Monna showed great dexterity and courage to pull off such a feat against her husband, and will always have completed one of the most sinister pranks ever. This series of events also brings out the immaturity of both Tofano and Monna. Regardless of their age and length of their marriage, they successfully bring out their inner child.

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Friendship and The Decameron

Egon Schiele
Egon Schiele, Friendship, 1913

"Oh, heart that I love so dearly, now that I have fully discharged my duties towards you, all that remains to be done is to bring my soul and unite it with yours." Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

True love finds its way through all barriers.

What love stands for differs now than from a several hundred years ago.  High school students often use the word love as a hyperbole, not comprehending what it truly means.  They all say, "I love you, [insert name here]." In today's culture, love becomes meaningless.  People often use it insincerely, which detracts from its significance.  Not only do peopleuse "love excessively to each other, but also to describe their feelings of certain lifeless objects, incapable of returning their so-called "love."

Ghismonda and Guiscardo from Boccaccio's The Decameron have a "love for the ages"  that lasts through death.  Although her father kills her lover Guiscardo, Ghismonda still loves him despite his death.  And then she further surprises readers when she commits suicide through a toxic concoction of poisonous herbs and the blood from her lover's heart.  I cannot think of one person today who would do that if their boyfriend died. That is the definition of dedication.

Egon Schiele's Friendship depicts a lovers' embrace, one of endearment and intimacy, similar to Ghismonda and Guiscardo's love. The two lovers in Friendship share a bond deeper than love.  Love does not always mean infatuation, it also means  friendship as well.  Similarly to Guiscardo and Ghismonda, they would rather watch the world get incinerated than be separated.
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A Woman, Possibly a Nun of San Secondo and The Decameron

A Woman Possibly a Nun
Jacometto Veneziano, A Woman, Possibly a Nun of San Secondo, c. 1485

“Fairest Ladies, there are a great many men and women who are so dense as to be firmly convinced that when a girl takes the white veil and dons the black cowl, she ceases to be a woman or to experience feminine longings.” Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

I suppose there is no better occupation than “Possibly a Nun”

In the first story on the third day of The Decameron, Massetto of Lamporecchio goes to work in a nunnery only to find that the women there are just as lustful (if not more) than he had hoped. This raises the question, are these women still nuns? Is this woman of San Secondo a nun?

Judging by the disheveled state of this "nun's" habit, I have a feeling that this particular woman may not be as faithful to the Lord as her black robe suggests. Though this painting does not scream infidelity, it does not necessarily scream purity either. The way the landscape so consequently begins right at her bare shoulder and continues down her breasts (or lack there of) down beyond the frame. And her "wimple" severely lacks some sort of veil or cornette or...something to make the painting just a bit less, shall we say, uncomfortable.

To make matters worse, this particular painting was coupled with another painting featuring a man, Alvise Contarini, with whom this woman possibly had a "clandestine relationship." And the plot thickens. As silly as the story in the Decameron seems, it does allude to a much broader flaw in human nature - curiosity.

The Nuns in The Decameron are not inherently lustful, they are simply curious, comparable to the curiosity one faces when studying Jacometto's painting of A Woman, Possibly a Nun of San Secondo. When I look at it, I can not help but wonder about her story, her clothing, and how she feels about being "Possibly a Nun."
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David with the Head of Goliath

Anirudh Vadlamani
Caravaggio, David with the Head of Goliath, 1610

“Having shaken out the soil, they saw cloth and found the decomposing head inside it, still sufficiently intact for them to recognize it as Lorenzo’s from the curls of his hair. This discovery greatly amazed them, and they were afraid lest people should come to know what had happened. So they buried the head, and without a word to anyone, having wound up their affairs in Messina, they left the city and went to live in Naples.”  Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

While we read the Decameron, fourth day-second story, in class, I could not help but remember this painting by Caravaggio. It wasn’t only because both had a beheading in them, but because in Lisabetta’s agony, I remembered the troubled look of David as he held the beheaded Goliath, in Caravaggio’s likeness. While Caravaggio’s face could not compare to how I imagined Lorenzo’s, I could not help but to imagine this painting as Lisabetta pulled her dead lover’s head out of his unmarked grave. The amount of detail Caravaggio put into David’s slightly feminine face made me feel a similar feeling of agony as well as relief. Similar to the painting, when Lisabetta finds Lorenzo’s body, she feels a sense of agony (because her lover is dead), but she also feels a sense of relief (we can presume) because her vision proved to be true, thus she was not crazy. Instead, Lorenzo actually did come to her in her sleep, and tell her the location of the body. If she had gone to the spot and not found a body, she would have cried in agony and bought a ticket into a medieval mental hospital.

I commend Lisabetta’s and David’s bravery in the situations they were in. David convinced King Saul to let him go face to face with a seven-foot Goliath with nothing but a sling shot that hurled stones, and a shepherd’s staff. David emerged victorious, proving King Saul and everybody watching the “Lord almighty is the only weapon one needs.” Lisabetta, meanwhile, not only stayed calm while her dead lover came and spoke to her in her sleep, but she also had the bravery to go find said lover, and cut his head off, keeping it in a jar long enough to grow a basil plant in the same jar. Although they do not share the same challenge, they certainly share a courageousness to overcome those who defy them.

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Nighthawks and The Decameron

Decameron
Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942

"And so they were secretly in love with each other. The young woman was longing to be with him... how they could meet?" - Boccaccio, The Decameron

When I look at the painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, the first thing that I notice is the loneliness of it all. The couple seen in the painting sit together, but the way the lines divide them from the others gives the appearance of isolation. In The Decameron's fourth day, first story, I feel this same isolation in the story of Ghismonda and Guiscardo. Ghismonda's father, Tancredi, refuses to allow her to marry, so she must hide her love for Guiscardo, along with their subsequent affair. They are together, but their togetherness must be hidden, and in this way they are isolated. Tancredi eventually finds out about their affair, however. He kills Guiscardo in retaliation and gives Guiscardo's heart to Ghismonda. She cannot bear to be alone, so she drinks his heart-blood mixed with poison to be with him in death. 

The couple in this painting seem to also be together, they are sitting quite close and drinking together. however, they are also alone. The are separated from each of the other two, and the rest of the painting is just empty space. However, the way the bar sits perpendicular to the wall draws the focus to these two. Whether they found each other in the diner that night or they're a married couple, their presence late at night in a near empty diner says that although they may be alone, they are alone together and seem to prefer it that way.

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The Decameron and The Last Communion of St. Jerome

Botticelli
Botticelli, The Last Communion of St. Jerome, 1494

“Practically all of them from the highest to the lowest were flagrantly given to the sin of lust, not only of the natural variety, but also of the sodomitic, without the slightest display of remorse… In addition to this, he clearly saw that they were all gluttons, winebibbers, and drunkards without exception” - Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron 

In one of the very first tales of The Decameron, Boccaccio puts forth social commentary pertaining to the spread of Catholicism, veiled by humor and irony. “First Day, Second Story” begins with Jehannot de Chevigny working to convert his close friend Abraham from Judaism to Christianity. Abraham refuses to abandon his upbringing and faith, but he puts an end to his comrade’s ceaseless insisting by traveling from Paris to Rome to “observe the behaviour of the Pope, the cardinals, the other Church dignitaries, and all of the courtiers” (39).

Being familiar with the conduct of Catholic figures in Rome, Jehannot understands that Abraham will not only return to Paris a Jewish man, but will be more secure than ever in his choice of faith. As the passage describes, Abraham witnesses behavior unthinkable to a man of his morality. Upon returning home, he recounts his experiences to Jehannot and, remarkably, announces his conversion. He states that if a religion so depraved can spread the way that Christianity has, it must have God’s blessing.

Botticelli portrays an entirely contrasting clergy in The Last Communion of St. Jerome. He depicts the image that people most associate with Catholic dignitaries of the time -- spiritual, well-behaved Disciples of Christ. He presents us with robed men tending diligently to the ill and aged.

The disparity between these works begs the question of which representation accurately captures Catholic clergymen. Does Botticelli illustrate the idyllic and Boccaccio the actual? Does either of them have adequate exposure to know for themselves whether these figures practice piousness or debauchery? Regardless, the contrast provokes thought concerning religion today, and whether we should regard religious figures as blessed links between Heaven and Earth, or simply as flawed, imperfect, and human.


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