L'Enfer des Beautés Cruelles, plate 5 from "The Decameron"
Medium
Etching; proof before letter
Dimensions
Sheet: 8 9/16 × 7 3/8 in. (21.7 × 18.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.3379-5
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of's Prints collection will delight in *L'Enfer des Beaut Cruelles, plate from "The Decameron"*, a captivating 1873 etching by French artist Léopold Flameng, illustrating Giovanni Boccaccio's iconic 14th-century masterpiece. Boccaccio's *Decameron*, written amid the Black Death, weaves 100 tales of love, wit, and human folly told by young Florentines escaping plague-ridden Italy. This plate evokes the sensual and satirical "hell of cruel beauties," capturing the work's earthy humanism and moral intrigue through Flameng's masterful linework. Printed as a "p...
About the Artist
Giovanni Boccaccio|Léopold Flameng (Italian|French) · 1313 |1831 –1375 |1911
Italian, Paris 1313–1375 Certaldo, Tuscany|French (born Belgium), Brussels 1831–1911 Paris