This painting is the third part of a series of 4 commissioned by Antonio Pucci for the marriage of his son, Giannozzo, with Lucrezia Bini; scenes 1 to 3 are now displayed in the Prado Museum in Madrid, and the last episode in the Pucci Palace, the original family house, in Florence

Nastagio degli Onesti appears in the 8th story told on the 5th day in Boccaccio’s Decameron, written in 1348-51. The theme is “loves with sad beginnings but happy endings”

The gist of the story: Nastagio, the protagonist from Ravenna, fell in love with the daughter of Paolo Traversari and tried hard to pursue her but the girl was indifferent; he was depressed to the point of almost trying to kill himself. Worried that Nastagio might suffer health problems and squander all his inheritance in the pursuit, his friends persuaded him to take leave Ravenna. And one day while he was in the countrywide, Nastagio witnessed an unreal scene: A semi-nude woman was being chased after by a horseman and his dogs which were biting on her thighs. Nastagio tried to help her but the horseman, named Guido degli Anastagi, told him that any intervention would be futile because both himself and the woman had already died, and that Nastagio was only seeing an apparition from purgatory

Guido further explained that he was in love with the woman but she was not moved which caused him to kill himself, and she also died not long after. After their deaths, Guido had to be punished for committing suicide and the woman for her cruelty of displaying joy upon his death. To expiate their sins, every Friday he would need to chase, kill, and disembowel her and feed her entrails to his dogs; and after each enactment she would be restored but would go through the gruesome experience repeatedly for as many years as the number of months she had rejected the love of Guido

Having understood the situation, Nastagio came up with a plan: Because the grisly scene would take place very Friday, he would invite Traversari’s daughter and her family for a luncheon in the forest, hoping that by making her witness the horrible punishment suffered by the woman who had been cruel to Guido, that she might be persuaded to accept his own love for her. In the end, Traversari’s daughter was indeed terrified and agreed to marry Nastagio

In the middle ground of this painting and hung on the tree trunks are the family emblems of the Pucci, the Medici and Pucci-Bini

Into the center of the scene surrounded by banquet guests, the semi-nude woman suddenly appears and is being bitten by the dogs and chased by the horseman with a drawn sword. Some guests are shocked: The women on the left rise up overturning the table and spilling all the food, while Nastagio, wearing red pants and with raised arms, tries to reassure them. The male guests in the middle are less alarmed; on the right of the table a musician lifts his drum aiming at the black dog, while another one has abandoned his lute

On the extreme right are 2 tents and a small group of people who are not aware of what is happening; Nastagio, again in red pants, is explaining the scene to them