Nastagio degli Onesti

The story of Nastagio degli Onesti is a fictional tale written by Boccaccio in the 1300s and was painted by Botticelli in the late 1400s to commemorate the second (and hastely planned) marriage of Gionnozzo Pucci and Lucretza Bini.

The story goes as such, Nastagio was a bachelor. A rich bachelor because his father and uncle both died and left him everything. So he naturally, was a play boy. He fell in love with an ice queen, who refused all of his advances. He gave her lots of gifts, attention, and love, but she still refused him.

Eventually his friends told him he should go on vacation, so he took his passe and they went on a vacation, but they didn't get very far, only just outside the city. He set up tents, and they had all kinds of fun doing everything they could think of to do. And got into all kinds of trouble.

One day he got sick of everybody and went out for a walk on his own, and this is where Botticelli picks up the story.

EEK GAD! THERESE A NAKED WOMAN BEING CHASED BY A DOG!

Nastagio falls upon the terrible scene of the knight chasing his beloved.

The knight was also spured by his beloved. He loved her dearly and when she refused him, he killed himself with the same sword he holds in his hands. Because she laughed at his sorrow and reveled in his mystery even after his death, she is doomed to be chased, and he is doomed to chase her every day in the different places where they went to be lovers.

Now, instead of doing fun things like spin the bottle, they do this:

He chases her with his dogs and then spears her in the back. He then rips out her cold hard heart, and feeds it to her dogs. Then she gets up and starts running away from him again. Wonderful circle huh?

Well Nastagio is like AH HA! PERFECT! That'll show her.

So he plans a wonderful banquet out in the forest, which was the thing to do to get away from city life and its problems.

And well, this happens:

Quite the disterbance huh? Well yeah.

And Nastagio gets what he wants. The woman who has been so cold to him is so affected she says that she will do whatever he wants. Including the hokie pokie aparently.

But, Nastagio is a good person, and he says he will preserve her honor and marry her instead.

So they get married:

And this sad little reception is the feast! It represents a very typical Italian wedding feast. The girls on one side, the old men on the other. But, it lacks all the happiness of a wedding. The bride obviously feels that Nastagio tricked her into it, but she doesn't have a choice, she is stuck because she doesn't want to end up like the couple in the forest.

While it seems like this is just BIZZAR! But, it does have a moral message.

There are lots of ice queens who think they are too good to get married, or get married to just any guy who dates them. The moral is a reminder that you need to do your duty to society, and to your family to have lots of babies. Being a spinster is not an option, unless you wanna run naked through forests for the rest of eternity.

There also is a bigger picture moral for both characters. The marriage symbolizes an end to the wastefulness of unmarried life. The money and time they both spent woeing and being woed is over, and now they can enjoy a peacefull settled life of a married couple.

A third interpretation is that the fourth scene, the feast scene, represents the opulence of the golden age of Florence, as well as the two families who commissioned the piece, place in society. The Pucci (family of the groom) was a new money kind of family, and the Bini (family of the Bride) was old money, ish. And they were both friends of the most powerful Lorenzo Magnificent.

This piece by such a popular artist definitely would have solidified the Pucci as members of high society. Anyone who saw it would've notice the portraits of members of political importance within the paintings. The pieces act as a sort of political propaganda.

Isn't this what you want to see on your wedding night?