Umbrian School: 15th-16th century.
On these three panels (formerly ascribed to Pinturicchio),[195] which
were probably destined to serve as decorations to a chest, the story
of Griselda is told with much naïve awkwardness of drawing, but also
with much naïve playfulness of incident. The story, told in Boccaccio's
_Decameron_, and by Petrarch, is also to be found in Chaucer's _Clerkes
Tale_.
In the first picture (912) we see (1) on the extreme left the Marquis
of Saluzzo, who is out hunting with a great retinue. He meets Griselda,
a peasant girl, who is drawing water at the well, and falls in love
with her. Next (2) on the extreme right is her humble barn-like
dwelling, with the marquis serenading his love from below. (3) He
carries her off with him; and note how Griselda, who is to be modest
and humble to the end, hangs her head in "maiden shamefacedness." (4)
Then the marquis has her attired in gold and fine linen, fit for a
prince's bride. Her pattens and perhaps her garters are lying discarded
beside her. And so (5), in the centre of the picture, all is ready for
the wedding:
This markis hath hir spoused with a ring
Brought for the same cause, and then hir sette
Upon an hors, snow-whyt and wel ambling.
Before the second act (913) a few years are supposed to have elapsed.
(1) On the left Griselda's two children--a boy and a girl--(in the
likeness of two very wooden dolls) are being carried off, as if by a
villain in a transpontine tragedy. They are supposed to have since
died miserably. (2) The marquis tires of his love for Griselda, and
is divorced: in the centre of the picture we see her giving back the
wedding ring. (3) Then she is stripped of her fine clothes, and (4)
sent away to her father's house, but
"The smok," quod he, "that thou hast on thy bak,
Lat it be stille, and ber it forth with thee."
Two young gallants, in absurd attitudes, look on in half-pitying
amusement, while nearer to us two serving-men are disgusted at the
cruel shame. (5) On the extreme right she is at home again, tending, as
before, her father's sheep.
In the last act (914), a grand banquet is prepared for the marquis's
second wedding, and Griselda is sent for to the castle to do menial
work. On the left we see her sweeping; on the right she is waiting at
table. Then, on the left again, it is discovered that the marquis's new
bride is none other than Griselda's long-lost daughter, accompanied by
her brother. They had all the while been tended in a distant city with
the utmost care. Griselda is thereupon affectionately embraced by her
husband, publicly reinstated in her proper position, and presented to
all the court as a model of wifely obedience and patience--
No wedded man so hardy be tassaille
His wyues pacience, in hope to fynde
Grisildes, for in certein he shal faille!
O noble wyues, ful of heigh prudènce,
Lat non humilitee your tongë naille.