Boccacio ontvangt drie vrouwen c. 1470

Editor: This piece, *Boccaccio ontvangt drie vrouwen*, or *Boccaccio Receives Three Women*, is thought to have been created around 1470 by an anonymous artist. It's a tempera, colored pencil, and drawing miniature. There's something very formal about the arrangement of the figures... almost theatrical. What are your initial thoughts when you look at it? Curator: It whispers of a cultural script, doesn't it? Consider the symbolic weight carried by each element: Boccaccio, cloaked and seated, representing knowledge and authority; the three women, adorned, approaching. Do their garments denote status or perhaps virtue? It's all deliberately staged. Note how their hands mirror one another: what narratives do you suppose the artist wished to suggest about femininity or agency at the time? Editor: So the mirrored hands, their positioning... It's like they’re not just presenting themselves, but perhaps a unified front? Do you think the choice of pale colors is also symbolic? Curator: Precisely! The paleness invokes a certain purity, doesn't it? Reflect on how white often signified innocence or spiritual light. The architecture too – what message does it intend to send? It all builds toward an encoding of social mores. How fascinating to see these performed. Editor: That's true! I was so focused on the figures I hadn’t thought about how even the setting contributes to this carefully constructed meaning. I now wonder what story this miniature seeks to tell. Curator: A good question! How is our reading then coloured by cultural context? By looking deeper, and posing critical questions about visual and symbolic meanings, this little painting starts to unveil its historical identity.