Illustratie voor de Decamerone van Boccaccio 1697

This illustration for Boccaccio’s Decameron was made by Romeyn de Hooghe, a Dutch artist, most likely in the late 17th century. The scene depicts a tense exchange within an ornately decorated interior. The clothing of the characters gives a sense of wealth, but the artist’s medium – etching – was more suited to popular printmaking than luxury book illustration. De Hooghe was a prolific and versatile artist who worked across different genres and styles, often engaging with the political events of his time. The Decameron, written in plague-ridden Florence in the mid-14th century, is a collection of novellas, some of which were considered scandalous. What might it have meant for a Dutch artist, working in a very different time and place, to revisit these stories, and for what kind of audience? In attempting to answer this question, a historian might examine not only the imagery of the artwork, but also the history of books, Dutch printmaking, and the cultural reception of Boccaccio's work.