The Nude Girl and the Abbot, from The Decameron

Art Historical Context

This woodcut illustrates a scene from Giovanni Boccaccio’s *The Decameron*, the celebrated 14th-century collection of tales told by ten young people sheltering from the plague. Created before 1534 by German artist Hans Schäufelein for a printed edition issued by Heinrich Steiner, the small print captures one of the book’s many stories involving cleverness, desire, and clerical hypocrisy—here featuring a nude girl and an abbot. As a woodcut, the work exemplifies the Renaissance technique of carving images into wooden blocks for repeatable printing, which helped bring illustrated literature to broader audiences across Europe. Schäufelein, active in the circle of Albrecht Dürer, brought a lively, expressive style to book decoration during this period of expanding print culture. Measuring just over two inches across, the print was designed to fit within the pages of an affordable volume. Its presence in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection highlights how early illustrated books merged literature, art, and social commentary, preserving Boccaccio’s witty narratives for generations of readers.

About the Artist

Hans Schäufelein|Giovanni Boccaccio|Heinrich Steiner · 1480–1540

Hans Schäufelein (c. 1480–c. 1540) was a German painter and graphic artist of the Northern Renaissance whose career placed him at the heart of one of the most dynamic artistic environments in European history. As a young man, he entered the workshop of Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg, an experience that proved decisive: Dürer's meticulous approach to draughtsmanship, his mastery of printmaking, and hi...