Summary of Decameron tales
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This article contains summaries and commentaries of the 100 stories within Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron.
A tale from The Decameron, by John William Waterhouse
The basilica of Santa Maria Novella, with a Renaissance façade that was completed about 100 years after The Decameron was written
Equestrian statue of Can Grande della Scala
The Ponte Vecchio, which was brand new in Boccaccio's time, in Florence. The city is the setting of many stories of the Decameron.
Buonamico Buffalmacco
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Buonamico di Martino, otherwise known as Buonamico Buffalmacco, was an Italian Renaissance painter who worked in Florence, Bologna, and Pisa. Although none of his known work has survived, he is widely assumed to be the painter of a most influential fresco cycle preserved in the Campo Santo of Pisa, featuring The Three Dead and the Three Living, the Triumph of Death, the Last Judgement, the Hell, and the Thebais.
From left to right: L'incontro dei tre vivi e dei tre morti ("The Three Dead and the Three Living") and Trionfo della Morte ("Triumph of Death"). The latter fresco was painted between c. 1330s–1350 (disputed); both are currently preserved in the Campo Santo of Pisa.
Detail of Trionfo della Morte ("Triumph of Death"): three stylish young aristocrats mounted on fine horses encounter three coffin-encased corpses in differing stages of decomposition.