Visualizing Boccaccio: Studies on Illustrations of the Decameron, from Giotto to Pasolini

by Jill M. Ricketts

Overview

Visualizing Boccaccio represents a new approach to the interpretation of Boccaccio's classic book of erotic tales, The Decameron. In a comparison of selected tales from The Decameron with works by Cimabue and Giotto, fifteenth-century manuscript illumination, a series of paintings by Botticelli, and Pier Paolo Pasolini's cinematic interpretation of the tales, Ricketts demonstrates how the juxtaposition of verbal and visual renditions permits new interpretations of each of these works.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521496001
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/28/1997
Series:	Cambridge Studies in New Art History and Criticism
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.67(d)

Table of Contents

1. Beastly Gualtieri: another audience for the Tale of Griselda; 2. Illuminating metaphors: the tale of Tancredi, Ghismunda and Guiscardo; 3. Boccaccio, Botticelli and the tale of Nastagio: the subversion of visuality by painting; 4. Imaginative artistry: Giotto, Boccaccio and Pasolini; 5. Living pictures: high art pastiche and the cruising gaze in Pasolini's Decameron.

Editorial Reviews

"...a book rich in enlightening analysis of visual detail and eager to assess the symbolic weight of such intangibles as color and form..." Choice

"Ricketts has set out to write an ambitious book, covering some six centuries and a variety of literary and visual forms. Its topic is important and its approach is potentially illuminating." Envoi

...very insightful analysis, especially of the visual art, which ranges from the paintings of Giotto and Bruegel and some anonymous fifteenth-century French manuscript illustrations to Pasolini's film, Decamerone." Studies in Iconography

"As rich and multi-faceted as the works of Boccaccio are, it is not surprising that they have been the impetus for hundreds of studies over several centuries." MANUSCRIPTA Vol 42 1998 Historical Review Dec 2001

From the Publisher