Isabella and the Pot of Basil
Artist
Arthur Trevethin Nowell
(British, 1861 - 1940)
Dateca. 1904
Object number74.0828
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions61 × 40 3/8 in. (155 × 102.5 cm)
frame: 70 × 50 1/8 in. (177.8 × 127.3 cm)
frame: 70 × 50 1/8 in. (177.8 × 127.3 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineMuseo de Arte de Ponce. The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.
Collections
On View
Not on viewDescriptionThe tragic love story of Isabella and Lorenzo has origins in oral folk tradition, but is better known for Bocaccio's medieval version in the Decameron (ca.1350-53). Daughter of noble lineage, Isabella falls in love with Lorenzo, a poor apprentice of her brothers. Once they discover their hidden romance, the brothers murder Lorenzo and hide his body. The ghost of the deceased appears to Isabella in a dream and leads her to his corpse, where she severs the head and buries it in her pot of basil, watered with her tears. Confused by their sister's obsession, the brothers steal the pot, find the severed head, and decide to flee Florence. Isabella later dies of a broken heart.
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