Page 240 - SUMMARIES OF GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO’S DECAMEON : A Visionary Journey In 100 Stories And 100 Etchings By Petru Russu

The Decameron by Giovanni Set against the grim backdrop of the Black Death in 1348 Florence,

Boccaccio : An Entertaining Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron opens with an act of courageous
withdrawal. As the city succumbs to chaos, death, and despair, ten
Series of One Hundred Stories in young nobles, seven women and three men, choose hope over

One Hundred and One Etchings hopelessness. Fleeing the apocalyptic atmosphere of urban life,

they retreat to a bucolic villa nestled in the Tuscan countryside,
by Petru Russu seeking shelter not only from the plague but from the psychological

Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron is not merely ruin that surrounds them. What might have remained a bleak exile
a literary monument - it is a vivid tapestry of is transformed by these individuals into a vivid celebration of
medieval life, woven with humor, tragedy, wit, storytelling, resilience, and communal imagination.
and wisdom. In this volume, artist Petru Russu

presents a compelling visual interpretation For ten days, the group lives in harmony and ritual, honoring an
through a series of one hundred and one agreement: each day, every person will tell one story. With this, a
etchings, created in 1985, that illuminate structure is born, not only a literary framework but a social contract

the richness and complexity of Boccaccio’s among the narrators. The result is a magnificent collection of one
storytelling. These etchings breathe life into the hundred stories, brimming with laughter, longing, mischief, justice,
tales, each an exquisite portal into the soul of and love. The tales are as diverse as their tellers: some bawdy and
a bygone era, rendering the emotions, themes, irreverent, others tender and wise; some steeped in satire, others
and characters with expressive clarity and overflowing with poetic romance. And through them all runs a

poetic intensity. profound thread, the triumph of human creativity in the face of
catastrophe.

Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid to cut into the Boccaccio’s stories traverse a vast emotional and thematic terrain:
unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the the recklessness of desire, the virtue of patience, the absurdities of
metal creating sunken areas which hold the ink. (Petru Rusu in 13 / 04 / 1986
power, and the hypocrisies of institutions. In one moment, we laugh at
intaglio printmaking the 100 Days of Decameron on H. Fleury printing press
manufactured in Paris in the 1880s.) the audacity of a clever servant; in the next, we weep with a betrayed
lover or ponder the quiet dignity of a wronged woman. There are

fables infused with moral warnings, and parables that mock the pieties
of the church. Each story is a mirror, reflecting not only medieval
society, but timeless truths about what it means to live, to love, and to
endure.

Petru Russu’s masterful etchings respond to this literary landscape
with arresting visual elegance and insight. Created in 1985, his suite of
one hundred and one etchings does more than illustrate, it interprets,
translates, and amplifies. These images do not merely accompany the