Gareth Long and Derek Sullivan

Third Day, Seventh Story, May 2, 2020

pencil and coloured pencil on paper

1@5.8 x 8.3” (14.7 x 21 cm)

1@8.3 x 5.8” (21 x 14.7 cm)

In a new iteration of Gareth Long and Derek Sullivan’s collaborative drawing project the two artists will methodically work their way through Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, each illustrating the one story per day in the isolation of their own studios. They will Zoom conference and draw together, but make separate drawings. The resulting pairs will be dated and numbered according to the story. The project will be continued until complete, or social distancing restrictions are lifted, whichever comes first.

Decameron (completed 1353 CE), set in Italy during the time of the Black Death, tells of a group of seven young women and three young men who flee from plague-ridden Florence to a deserted villa in the countryside for two weeks. To pass the evenings, each member of the party tells a story each night, except for one day per week for chores, and the holy days during which they do no work at all, resulting in ten nights of storytelling over the course of two weeks. Thus, by the end of the fortnight they have told 100 stories.

Summary of Third Day, Seventh Story: Tedaldo Elisei, having fallen out with his mistress, departeth Florence and returning thither, after awhile, in a pilgrim's favour, speaketh with the lady and maketh her cognisant of her error; after which he delivereth her husband, who had been convicted of murdering him, from death and reconciling him with his brethren, thenceforward discreetly enjoyeth himself with his mistress.