Description
The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti, Part Three is a painting by Sandro Botticelli from 1483, the third of four panels after a tale in Boccaccio’s Decameron: at a banquet Nastagio gives in a seaside pine wood, the ghostly hunt breaks in, a knight on a white horse and two dogs pursuing a naked woman. The original, tempera on panel measuring 84 x 142 cm, is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Our painter paints it for you by hand in oil on canvas, in 4 landscape sizes from 100 x 58 to 160 x 95 cm or made to measure. Before it leaves us, you get a photograph of your finished Nastagio banquet.
| Title: | The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti, Part Three |
| Other titles: | Nastagio degli Onesti, terzo episodio (Italian title) · Zgodba o Nastagiu degli Onestiju, tretji del (Slovene title) |
| Painter: | Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445–1510) |
| Year painted: | 1483 |
| Original size: | 84 cm x 142 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Tempera on panel |
| Painting style: | Early Renaissance |
| Located at: | Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil on canvas, 4 sizes or made to measure |
The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti, Part Three – Sandro Botticelli
What does the third Nastagio panel show?
The scene unfolds under tall pines on the coast. The straight trunks stand in line like columns, and between them the view opens onto a calm sea with ships, a walled town on the left and bluish mountains on the right. Stumps in front show where trees were felled to make room for the tables.
Richly dressed guests sit at long tables laid in white, before a woven fence crowned with leaves and fruit; coats of arms in green wreaths hang on the trunks.
Into the middle of the feast runs a naked woman with long fair hair, fleeing with her arms stretched out. A white dog and a black one chase her, and from the right a knight in golden armour and a red cloak gallops in on a white horse, sword raised.
The women on the left leap up in alarm and overturn their table, so that food and dishes tumble to the ground. Nastagio, in red hose, stands with his back to us and calms the guests with open arms. On the right a musician lifts his drum towards the dogs, and a lute lies forgotten on the table.
How does the story move on in this part?
The tale of Nastagio degli Onesti is the eighth story of the fifth day in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. Nastagio, a nobleman of Ravenna, loves the daughter of Paolo Traversari, but she rejects his courtship.
In The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti, Part One the young man first saw the knight hunting a woman with his dogs in the pine wood. He learned that both are spirits and that the chase returns to the same spot every Friday.
So on the following Friday he invites his relatives and the Traversari family, the young woman among them, to a banquet in the wood. Part three shows the moment the apparition bursts in and everyone sees it.
The knight is the ghost of Guido, an ancestor of Nastagio, who then tells his sad story. The young woman takes it as a warning, changes her mind and decides to marry Nastagio. The wedding is shown in the fourth part of the series.
Why is this panel so well known?
Botticelli tells two moments at once on a single panel, which is why Nastagio appears twice: in front he calms the frightened guests, and on the right, by the tents, we see him again in a small group.
The vertical trunks and the horizontal band of sea behind them form a kind of grid that gives the scene great depth. The colours are clear, and slender figures and animals move with grace, somewhere between fairy tale and reality.
The design of all four scenes is Botticelli’s, while the execution was partly left to assistants in his workshop, above all Bartolomeo di Giovanni for the first three panels and Jacopo del Sellaio for the last. More about it is in the Wikipedia article, which is in Italian.
Where is the original kept, and how did it get there?
The original hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, together with the first and second parts of the story. The fourth panel, with the wedding feast, is in Florence.
The series was painted in 1483 for the wedding of Giannozzo Pucci and Lucrezia Bini, perhaps commissioned by Lorenzo de’ Medici as a wedding gift. Hence the arms on the fence behind the table, from left to right Pucci, Medici and the joined Pucci-Bini arms.
They hung in the Florentine Palazzo Pucci until 1868, the year of their sale. In 1929 Francesc Cambó bought three of them, and in 1941 he gave them to the Prado.
Nastagio’s banquet or another Botticelli?
This canvas painting suits lovers of literature: the story reads from left to right and is full of detail. Its long, low format fits above a sofa or a sideboard.
If you enjoy Botticelli as a storyteller, look also at The Story of Lucretia and The Story of Virginia. A different, graver mood fills Calumny of Apelles.
More famous Botticelli paintings, all painted to order, are on our Sandro Botticelli page.
How do we hand-paint Nastagio’s banquet?
Botticelli’s original is not painted in oil but in tempera on a wooden panel of 84 x 142 cm. Our Sandro Botticelli reproduction is built up by hand in oil on canvas, layer by layer, so you can have it rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed.
The painter first places the pine trunks that carry the composition, then the sky, the sea with its ships and the dark crowns, then the white tables and the fence.
Last come the figures, from the guests in red, pink and blue to Nastagio, the fleeing woman, both dogs and the white horse, and finally the golden lights on the armour.
Which size works on which wall?
In short: the two smaller sizes for a niche above a chest of drawers or a bed, the two larger ones for a wide wall above the sofa.
We paint the third Nastagio panel in 4 landscape sizes (width x height): 100 x 58, 110 x 68, 140 x 85 and 160 x 95 cm. The original measures 142 x 84 cm (width x height), so 100 x 58 and 110 x 68 cm are smaller, 140 x 85 cm is about as large as the panel in the Prado, and 160 x 95 cm is larger.
Long and low, it needs a wide wall rather than a tall one. As a painting for the living room it works best at 140 x 85 or 160 x 95 cm, when the guests and the dogs are easy to make out from the sofa.
Can I order a different size, and which frame should I choose?
Yes. For other proportions we keep every figure whole and adjust only the sky, the sea or the wood at the edges. That way an oil painting reproduction in another format still tells the whole story. Send us the size you need and we will reply with a price and a date for Nastagio’s banquet.
We send the painting rolled in a tube, stretched on a stretcher bar or ready framed. Our workshop in Slovenia stretches, frames and packs it safely.
Pick the moulding in our 3D app, which serves only to choose the frame; a view of the banquet on your own wall is a separate service.
When will your Nastagio banquet arrive?
The painting is ready to ship 15 to 45 working days after your order is confirmed. When it is done you get a photograph, and any change you want is made before packing.
There are no customs within Slovenia and the rest of the EU, and our returns policy applies to every order.
Made for a wedding, the series suits a newly married couple or an anniversary. Not sure where it will hang? With a wall art voucher the person you give it to chooses the painting and the size.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see the original of part three?
In the Museo del Prado in Madrid, alongside the first and second parts.
What is happening in this painting?
A knight and his dogs chase a naked woman through a banquet in the pines, and the guests rise in fright.
Is this a print?
No, it is a hand-painted copy: our painter brushes in every figure, every trunk and every wave.
How big is the original?
84 x 142 cm (height x width); our 140 x 85 cm is about the same, and 160 x 95 cm is larger.
Can you paint part three in a size that is not listed?
Yes. Give us the width and height, and we will send you a price and a date for part three.
How long will the banquet take, and how is it sent?
15 to 45 working days before it leaves us; then it travels rolled, stretched or framed.
Does it suit a bedroom?
The scene is dramatic and includes a nude figure, so a living room or dining room suits it better than a child’s room.
What is the moral of the story?
It is a moral tale with a happy ending: it warns against ingratitude in love and ends in a wedding.
- Subject: a seaside banquet broken up by a knight on a white horse, his dogs and a fleeing woman.
- Original: tempera on panel, 1483, 84 x 142 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid.
- Ours: hand-painted in oil on canvas, four landscape sizes from 100 x 58 to 160 x 95 cm, or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: part three of a four-panel wedding series of 1483 that tells a tale from the Decameron.
